Australian Goldfields Open

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

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[1]
Final year2015
Final championScotland John Higgins

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.[2] 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)[3]
1979 Australia Ian Anderson South Africa Perrie Mans Aggregate Score [n 1] Australia Sydney 1979/80
1980 England John Spencer Northern Ireland Dennis Taylor Aggregate Score [n 1] 1980/81
1981 England Tony Meo England John Spencer Aggregate Score [n 1] 1981/82
1982 England Steve Davis Australia Eddie Charlton 254–100 points [n 1] 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[4] 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 [n 1] 1987/88
Hong Kong Open (ranking)
1989[5] England Mike Hallett New Zealand Dene O'Kane 9–8 Hong Kong Hong Kong 1989/90
Australian Open (non-ranking)
1994[6] Scotland John Higgins England Willie Thorne 9–5 Australia Melbourne 1994/95
Australian Masters (non-ranking)
1995[6] England Anthony Hamilton Scotland Chris Small 8–6 Australia Melbourne 1995/96
Australian Open (non-ranking)
1995[2] England Anthony Hamilton Scotland Chris Small 9–7 Australia Melbourne 1995/96
Australian Goldfields Open (ranking)[7]
2011[8] England Stuart Bingham Wales Mark Williams 9–8 Australia Bendigo 2011/12
2012[9] England Barry Hawkins England Peter Ebdon 9–3 2012/13
2013[10] Hong Kong Marco Fu Australia Neil Robertson 9–6 2013/14
2014[11] England Judd Trump Australia Neil Robertson 9–5 2014/15
2015[12] Scotland John Higgins England Martin Gould 9–8 2015/16

Notes
  1. The finals were decided on aggregate score over three frames between 1979 and 1982 and five frames in 1987.

See also
  • Cue sports in Australia

References
  1. Kalb, Rolf (29 June 2014). "Turnier-Infos: Australian Open" (in German). Eurosport Deutschland. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 30 June 2014.
  2. Hayton, Eric. Cuesport Book of Professional Snooker. p. 167.
  3. Turner, Chris. "Australian Masters". Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 30 September 2010. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
  4. Hayton, Eric (2004). The CueSport Book of Professional Snooker. Lowestoft: Rose Villa Publications. p. 31. ISBN 0-9548549-0-X.
  5. Turner, Chris. "Other Asia Ranking Events". Chris Turner's Snooker Archive. Archived from the original on 24 July 2011. Retrieved 14 June 2011.
  6. Hayton, Eric (2004). The CueSport Book of Professional Snooker. Suffolk: Rose Villa Publications. pp. 165–167. ISBN 978-0-9548549-0-4.
  7. "Hall of Fame". Snooker.org. Retrieved 22 June 2013.
  8. "Stuart Bingham beats Mark Williams 9–8 to win Australian Open". BBC Sport. 24 July 2011. Archived from the original on 1 May 2012. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
  9. "Australian Goldfields Open (2012)". Snooker.org. Retrieved 4 June 2012.
  10. "Australian Goldfields Open (2013)". Snooker.org. Retrieved 22 May 2012.
  11. "Australian Goldfields Open (2014)". Snooker.org. Retrieved 23 May 2014.
  12. "Australian Goldfields Open (2015)". Snooker.org. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
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