Australian Goldfields Open

Australian Goldfields Open
Tournament information
VenueBendigo Stadium
LocationBendigo
CountryAustralia
Established1979
Organisation(s)World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association
FormatRanking event
Total prize fund$500,000
Final year2015
Final championScotland John Higgins

The Australian Goldfields Open was a professional ranking snooker tournament. The final champion was John Higgins in 2015.

History

Australia had previously hosted the 1971 and 1975 World Snooker Championships, as well as several other high-profile snooker tournaments and in 1979 the Australian Masters was established. There was an attempt to turn the event into a ranking tournament in 1989 but the sponsorship fell through so it was staged in Hong Kong instead, as the Hong Kong Open, which incidentally became the first ranking tournament to be staged in Asia. The Hong Kong event was discontinued after just one year, but returned to Australia in 1994 as the Australian Open. The tournament reverted to being called the Australian Masters for the following season, but was dropped from the calendar after the 1995 event. In addition, the tournament was also held in 1995 as the Australian Open immediately following the Australian Masters, featuring mostly the same players and the same two players in the final. In 2011 the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association resurrected the event under the Australian Goldfields Open name and added it to the 2011/2012 calendar. The tournament's later incarnation providing the first ranking tournament victories for future World Champion Stuart Bingham and future world finalist Barry Hawkins and arguably resurrected the careers of these two players who had previously been considered journeyman professionals, who had previously hovered between the fringes of the top 16 and top 32.

In 2016, the event was quietly dropped from the calendar.

Winners

Year Winner Runner-up Final score City Season
Australian Masters (non-ranking)
1979 Australia Ian Anderson South Africa Perrie Mans Aggregate Score Australia Sydney 1979/80
1980 England John Spencer Northern Ireland Dennis Taylor Aggregate Score 1980/81
1981 England Tony Meo England John Spencer Aggregate Score 1981/82
1982 England Steve Davis Australia Eddie Charlton 254–100 points 1982/83
1983 Canada Cliff Thorburn Canada Bill Werbeniuk 7–3 1983/84
1984 England Tony Knowles England John Virgo 7–3 1984/85
1985 England Tony Meo Australia John Campbell 7–2 1985/86
1986 Northern Ireland Dennis Taylor England Steve Davis 3–2 1986/87
1987 Scotland Stephen Hendry England Mike Hallett 371–226 points 1987/88
Hong Kong Open (ranking)
1989 England Mike Hallett New Zealand Dene O'Kane 9–8 Hong Kong Hong Kong 1989/90
Australian Open (non-ranking)
1994 Scotland John Higgins England Willie Thorne 9–5 Australia Melbourne 1994/95
Australian Masters (non-ranking)
1995 England Anthony Hamilton Scotland Chris Small 8–6 Australia Melbourne 1995/96
Australian Open (non-ranking)
1995 England Anthony Hamilton Scotland Chris Small 9–7 Australia Melbourne 1995/96
Australian Goldfields Open (ranking)
2011 England Stuart Bingham Wales Mark Williams 9–8 Australia Bendigo 2011/12
2012 England Barry Hawkins England Peter Ebdon 9–3 2012/13
2013 Hong Kong Marco Fu Australia Neil Robertson 9–6 2013/14
2014 England Judd Trump Australia Neil Robertson 9–5 2014/15
2015 Scotland John Higgins England Martin Gould 9–8 2015/16

This page was last updated at 2023-10-10 06:09 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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