"I'm over the moon," Dobey told reporters after his win in Rotterdam Ahoy. The Northumberland-born player hadn't won a Premier League night since week 1 of the 2023 campaign, when he beat Michael van Gerwen 6-5 in Belfast - the same city where he played his last Premier League final in week 1 of the current season.
"It's always good to be winning. There was never any doubt that I would win one. I felt comfortable. I said earlier today that I feel great. I feel like I can win it, and I've just proved myself right."
Dobey opened his night with a 6-3 win over Luke Humphries before eliminating a sloppy Nathan Aspinall in the semi-finals. Hollywood notched a 106 average against Stephen Bunting in the final, which Dobey would go on to win 6-2.
The five points Dobey picked up in the Netherlands put him right back in the fight for the playoffs in London. "There's no reason why not. I feel my game is there. If I can keep producing darts like I did tonight, I've always got a chance, but I'm just happy to put myself back in the mix and run for it."
Challenging conditions
As in years prior, Ahoy proved to be difficult for some players to throw accurately, with the wind causing issues. Luke Littler switched to heavier darts, whereas Gerwyn Price took to Instagram to air out his frustrations.
"I'm so sorry, but this week was pointless, and we move to next week. Darts were blowing everywhere, and after one leg, which was lucky, I knew it was pointless. Hopefully, the PDC will now stop coming here and look for alternative venues. Not good for the players, not good for the fans, and not good for people that like a bet," the Welshman said after his first-round exit.
Dobey, however, did not care much about the challenging conditions and continued to use his usual 23-gram darts. "It was hard, but I wouldn't say it was the toughest conditions. I think a few years back, if I remember rightly, it was really tough.
"There are conditions everywhere you go that are different, and it's just how you deal with them. I've touched on it before. I played here a couple of years ago, and the conditions were bad; I dealt with them a lot better this year. I think they tried to help it. They've done things differently this year. It wasn't as bad as the previous years."
Dobey called the fact that others changed darts for the wind a case of overthinking. "I think you can think too far into it. I'll just use my normal darts, my normal set-up, and just let the darts do the talking."