The prize fund for the Grand Slam was increased from £400,000 in 2016 to £450,000 in 2017, with the winner getting £110,000, as opposed to £100,000.
Qualifying
PDC Qualifying Tournaments
At most sixteen players could qualify through this method, where the position in the list depicts the priority of the qualification. In case the list of qualifiers from the main tournaments produced fewer than sixteen players, the field of sixteen players is filled from the reserve lists. The first list consists of the winners from 2017 European Tour events, in which the winners shall be selected in Order of Merit position order at the cut-off date. Had there still been less than sixteen qualified players after the winners of European Tour events were added, the winners of 2017 Players Championships events would have been added, followed by the winners of qualifying tournaments for the 2017 UK Open. As there are already 16 qualified players after the first two qualification methods, no player will qualify via Players Championships and UK Open qualifying events. This resulted in Adrian Lewis missing the tournament for the first time.
A further eight places in the Grand Slam of Darts will be filled by qualifiers from a PDC qualifier that took place in Wigan on 6 November. These are the qualifiers:
The remaining five BDO representatives were the top five non-qualified players from the BDO Invitational Rankings at 30 September 2017. The five qualifiers were confirmed on 10 October 2017, and were:
All group matches are best of nine legs After three games, the top two in each group qualify for the knock-out stage
NB in Brackets: Number = Seeds; BDO = BDO Darts player; Q = Qualifier
NB: P = Played; W = Won; L = Lost; LF = Legs For; LA = Legs Against; +/− = Plus/Minus Record, in relation to legs; Pts = Points; Status = Qualified to Knockout Stage
Group A
11 November 12 November 14 November
Group B
11 November 12 November 14 November
Group C
11 November 12 November 14 November
Group D
11 November 12 November 14 November
Nine dart shootout
With Mark Webster and Darren Webster finishing level on points and leg difference, a nine-dart shootout between the two took place to see who would play the Group C winner Phil Taylor in the second round. The match took place after the conclusion of Tuesday's group matches, and was the second year in succession that a nine-dart shootout was required. Mark Webster threw first.
Mark Webster