Rowby-John Rodriguez

In 2010, as a 16-year-old, Rodriguez won the Austrian National Championship by beating Franz Thaler 5–0 in the final.

At the second event of Q School in January 2014 he stood one win away from joining the PDC but lost 5–3 to Gerwyn Price. However, after all four events had been played Rodriguez had done enough to finish ninth on the Q School Order of Merit and earn a two-year tour card. His first PDC major was the UK Open where he was knocked out 5–1 by Tony Randall in the first round.

In May, Rodriguez reached the final of the PDC World Youth Championship where he lost 6–4 to Keegan Brown at the O2 Arena in London as part of the Premier League finals night. Reaching the final secured him a place in the 2014 Grand Slam of Darts. Rodriguez was now Austria's number two player behind Mensur Suljović and they teamed up at the World Cup of Darts, but lost both their singles matches in the second round against the Belgium brothers of Kim and Ronny Huybrechts. Rodriguez reached the quarter-finals of a Pro Tour event for the first time at the 14th Players Championship defeating the likes of Gary Anderson, Paul Nicholson and Jamie Caven, before losing 6–1 to Ian White. His play throughout the year earned him a debut in the European Championship where he lost 6–2 to Robert Thornton in the opening round. At the Grand Slam, Rodriguez beat world number three Adrian Lewis 5–2 in his opening group game before losing 5–1 to Dave Chisnall. He went into his final group game knowing a win over Brown would see him qualify for the last 16 and, despite coming back from 3–0 down to level at 3–3, he lost 5–3.

Rodriguez made his debut at the 2015 World Championship after he qualified through the Pro Tour Order of Merit. However, he ran into an in-form Raymond van Barneveld who hit finishes of 167 and 170 as he restricted Rodriguez to two legs during the match in a 3–0 defeat. Rodriguez averaged 79.22 which was over 20 points lower than his opponent's, but he still broke into the top 64 on the Order of Merit for the first time after the tournament concluded as he was ranked world number 58. He won the opening Development Tour event of the year by beating Jamie Lewis 4–1 in the final. Rodriguez and Suljović were eliminated in the last 16 of the World Cup for the second consecutive year, this time to Germany. From the last 32 onwards he knocked out Kim Huybrechts, Wayne Jones and Mensur Suljović at the 14th Players Championship to play in his first PDC Pro Tour semi-final, where he lost 6–2 against Jelle Klaasen. A 6–4 win over Christian Kist saw Rodriguez make the second round of the European Championship in which he could only average 73.43 against John Henderson in a 10–2 defeat. After losing 5–3 to Robbie Green and beating Martin Phillips 5–2 at the Grand Slam, Rodriguez needed a win over Phil Taylor to qualify for the last 16, but he lost 5–2.

Rodriguez hit the first 170 finish of the 2016 World Championship, but lost each of the three sets played against Dave Chisnall in the first round by deciding legs. He reached the quarter-finals of the first UK Open Qualifier, but was beaten 6–1 by Adrian Lewis and he lost 6–2 to Lee Evans in the second round of the main event. Rodriguez was defeated in the final of three Development Tour events in 2016.

Rodriguez and Mensur Suljović eliminated Italy and Singapore to ensure Austria played in their first World Cup quarter-final, where Suljović was whitewashed by Phil Taylor and Rodriguez lost 4–1 to Adrian Lewis. A couple of quarter-finals out of the 20 Players Championship events qualified him for the Finals and he beat Ronny Huybrechts 6–4, before being thrashed 6–0 by Joe Cullen in the second round.

Rodriguez squared his first round match with Dave Chisnall at the 2017 World Championship at two sets apiece, but lost all three legs of the decider. Austria played England in the quarter-finals of the 2017 World Cup for the second successive year. Mensur Suljović thrashed Adrian Lewis 4–0 and Rodriguez lost 4–1 to Chisnall, before Austria were defeated 4–2 in the decisive doubles match.

On the last weekend of the PDC Development Tour Rodriguez reached the final twice and won one of them 5:4 against Luke Humphries. This was enough to qualify for the 2017 PDC World Youth Championship, but after winning only one match there, Rodriguez missed out on qualifying for the other Majors, including the 2018 PDC World Darts Championship. However, he was able to defend his Tour Card via the rankings.

His form improved a little in 2018, when he qualified three times for the European Tour, but only won one match in the 2018 Dutch Darts Championship, won the fifth tournament on the PDC Development Tour and reached the final of the eleventh tournament.

In October he defeated his brother Rusty-Jake Rodriguez in the final of the South East European Qualifier for the 2019 PDC World Darts Championship. Before that, however, he was eliminated in the group stage of the 2019 PDC World Youth Championship. After reaching the last 16 of the Players Championships and the third round several times, he qualified for the 2019 Players Championship Finals but lost in round one to Danny Noppert.

In the 2019 PDC World Darts Championship Rodriguez met Ricky Evans in round one. Rodriguez won 3:1 and thus won a match for the first time at a World Championship. In the second round, he then lost 2:3 to Cristo Reyes despite having match darts.

Having retained his Tour card once again, Rodriguez reached the last 16 of Players Championship 6. Rodriguez lost again in round one of the 2019 UK Open.

Rodriguez reached another round of 16 on the tour at the 2019 Dutch Darts Masters, where he lost to Mervyn King in a last-leg decider. He even reached the quarter-finals of the 2019 Austrian Darts Championship after defeating Josh Payne, Daryl Gurney and Mike De Decker before losing 5-6 to Peter Wright.

Thanks to these successes, Rodriguez qualified for the 2020 PDC World Darts Championship via the PDC Pro Tour Order of Merit, but was unable to win a set against Philippine qualifier Noel Malicdem.

At the 2020 UK Open Rodriguez didn't win a match for the fourth time. During the break forced by the COVID-19 pandemic, Rodriguez took part in the first PDC Home Tour. Rodriguez also returned to the 2020 PDC World Cup of Darts after a two-year break and reached the quarter-finals with Mensur Suljović for the third time. The pair started the tournament with a 5-2 win over the USA, after which they beat José de Sousa and José Marquês from Portugal. In the quarter-finals, again against England, Suljović first won 4:3 against Michael Smith before Rodriguez lost to Rob Cross by the same score. In the doubles, it turned out that the match went the full distance of 21 legs, with England winning the doubles 4:3.

Due to his lack of success on the Pro Tour, however, he failed to qualify for the other majors. Rodriguez lost his Tour Card after the 2020 season.

Rodriguez qualified for the final stage at Q-School 2021, but it wasn't enough to win him the Tour card back. However, Rodriguez still qualified for almost all of the 2021 Players Championships and the 2021 UK Open, where Rodriguez won matches for the first time. He beat Brian Raman in the first round and Kevin McDine in the Second round before also succeeding in the Third round. Here he won 6-5 against Josh Payne before losing to Jonny Clayton in the Fourth round.

On the Pro tour, Rodriguez then achieved some respectable successes, including several round of 16 appearances, and thus achieved a place in the PDC Pro Tour Order of Merit, which guaranteed him a place in the 2022 PDC World Darts Championship.

Rodriguez once again played alongside Mensur Suljović for Austria in the 2021 PDC World Cup of Darts. In the First round, the pair won 5-1 against the Philippines before winning both their singles matches against Kim Huybrechts and Dimitri Van den Bergh from Belgium in the Second round. They faced Northern Ireland in the quarter-finals and while Suljović narrowly lost to Brendan Dolan, Rodriguez levelled that defeat by winning 4-2 against Daryl Gurney. Suljović and Rodriguez then won 4:3 in the doubles to reach the semi-finals for the first time.

However, the team from England, who Rodriguez had lost to in his last three World Cup appearances, were awaiting there. However, James Wade and Dave Chisnall proved to be beatable, with Rodriguez in particular drawing attention to himself in the duel against the latter with an average of 102. Both won 4:1 and so Austria reached the final for the first time. There, however, John Henderson and Peter Wright from Scotland were one size too strong and won 1:3.

Nevertheless, Rodriguez qualified for the 2021 Grand Slam of Darts as a finalist in a major tournament, beating Chris Dobey and Stephen Bunting in the group stage to qualify for the knockout phase. In the round of 16, however, he was beaten by James Wade 2:10.

In the 2022 PDC World Darts Championship Rodriguez first won against Nick Kenny 3:0, but had to accept a whitewash in sets in round two against Luke Humphries, which meant he missed the Tour card by one place in the Order of Merit. As a result, he had to take part in the PDC Q-School in January 2022, where he regained his Tour card via the Order of Merit there.

He then performed well in the European Tour events. He reached the quarter-finals of both the 2022 Czech Darts Open and the 2022 European Darts Grand Prix.

Rodriguez made his first final at a Euro Tour tournament by beating Danny Noppert, Gerwyn Price, Gabriel Clemens, Nathan Aspinall and Madars Razma at the 2022 European Darts Matchplay in Trier. In the final he met Luke Humphries, who already won three Euro Tour tournaments earlier that year. Rodriguez missed a match dart in the deciding leg, after which the Englishman won with 8-7.

At the 2022 Players Championship Finals he lost in round 1 against Joe Cullen, as well as at the 2023 PDC World Darts Championship against Lourence Ilagan. On the European Tour 2023, he only played in three tournaments and thus only reached 75th place in the European Tour Order of Merit. He was the only Austrian to qualify for the 2023 Players Championship Finals.

In the 2024 World Cup of Darts, Rodriguez and his Austria teammate Mensur Suljović were the runners-up, reaching the final where they lost to England.