Australian Goldfields Open

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

See also

• Cue sports in Australia