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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

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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

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Year Winner Runner-up Final score City Season
Australian Masters (non-ranking)[3]
1979   Ian Anderson   Perrie Mans Aggregate Score [n 1]   Sydney 1979/80
1980   John Spencer   Dennis Taylor Aggregate Score [n 1] 1980/81
1981   Tony Meo   John Spencer Aggregate Score [n 1] 1981/82
1982   Steve Davis   Eddie Charlton 254–100 points [n 1] 1982/83
1983   Cliff Thorburn   Bill Werbeniuk 7–3 1983/84
1984   Tony Knowles   John Virgo 7–3 1984/85
1985[4]   Tony Meo   John Campbell 7–2 1985/86
1986   Dennis Taylor   Steve Davis 3–2 1986/87
1987   Stephen Hendry   Mike Hallett 371–226 points [n 1] 1987/88
Hong Kong Open (ranking)
1989[5]   Mike Hallett   Dene O'Kane 9–8   Hong Kong 1989/90
Australian Open (non-ranking)
1994[6]   John Higgins   Willie Thorne 9–5   Melbourne 1994/95
Australian Masters (non-ranking)
1995[6]   Anthony Hamilton   Chris Small 8–6   Melbourne 1995/96
Australian Open (non-ranking)
1995[2]   Anthony Hamilton   Chris Small 9–7   Melbourne 1995/96
Australian Goldfields Open (ranking)[7]
2011[8]   Stuart Bingham   Mark Williams 9–8   Bendigo 2011/12
2012[9]   Barry Hawkins   Peter Ebdon 9–3 2012/13
2013[10]   Marco Fu   Neil Robertson 9–6 2013/14
2014[11]   Judd Trump   Neil Robertson 9–5 2014/15
2015[12]   John Higgins   Martin Gould 9–8 2015/16

Notes

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  1. ^ a b c d e The finals were decided on aggregate score over three frames between 1979 and 1982 and five frames in 1987.

See also

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References

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  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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b 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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