Players Tour Championship

Players Tour Championship

Tournament status
Ranking tournament:	2010–2016 (final tournament)
Minor ranking tournament:	2010–2016 (preliminary tournaments)
Invitation tournament:	-
Tournament dates of the last edition
Venue:	Event City, Manchester (Final)
Prize money (total):	£ 50,000 / € 125,000 per pre-tournament £ 350,000 in the final tournament
Prize money (winner):	£ 10,000 / € 25,000 per pre-tournament £ 100,000 in the final tournament
Frames in the final:	Best of 19
Records
Most wins:	Shaun Murphy , Stephen Lee , Ding Junhui , Barry Hawkins , Joe Perry , Mark Allen  (1 × each)
Highest Break:	147 ( Maximum Break ) Ding Junhui (3 ×) (PTC 12 & 11; 2011/12, Grand Finals 2012/13), Kurt Maflin (2 ×) (PTC 1; 2010/11 & ET 5; 2012/13), Shaun Murphy (2 ×) (ET 8; 2013/14 & ET 4; 2014/15), Barry Hawkins (PTC 3; 2010/11), T. Thirapongpaiboon (EPTC 3; 2010/11), Mark J. Williams ( EPTC 3; 2010/11), Rory McLeod (EPTC 6; 2010/11), Ronnie O'Sullivan (PTC 4; 2011/12), David Gray (PTC 10; 2011/12), Ricky Walden (PTC 10; 2011 / 12), Matthew Stevens (PTC 12; 2011/12), Jamie Cope (PTC 11; 2011/12), Ken Doherty (ET 1; 2012/13), Tom Ford (ET 4; 2012/13), Judd Trump (ET 7; 2013/14), Aditya Mehta (ET 2; 2014/15), Ryan Day (AT 2; 2014/15), Ben Woollaston (ET 5; 2014/15)
Venue (s) on the map
1 2 3 4th 5 6th 7th 8th 9 10 11 12 13 14th 15th 16 17th 18th 19th 20th 21st 22nd Europe: 1 - Sheffield , 2 - Fürth , 3 - Bruges , 4 - Rüsselsheim , 5 - Gloucester , 6 - Hamm , 7 - Prague , 8 - Dublin , 9 - Warsaw , 10 - Killarney , 11 - Antwerp , 12 - Fürstenfeldbruck , 13 - Galway , 14 - Gdynia , 15 - Sofia , 16 - Ravenscraig , 17 - Rotterdam , 18 - Doncaster , 19 - Mülheim , 20 - Preston , 21 - Riga , 22 - Lisbon 1 2 3 4th 5 6th China: 1 - Zhangjiagang , 2 - Yixing , 3 - Zhengzhou , 4 - Dongguan , 5 - Haining , 6 - Xuzhou 1 Thailand 1 - Bangkok

The Players Tour Championship (PTC) was a series of snooker tournaments that were first played in the 2010/11 snooker season . Compared to other main tour tournaments , there were fewer points for the snooker world rankings ; because it was a Pro-Am tournament series, in which Main Tour players and amateurs played.

Story and mode

The PTC series was launched in 2010 by the new WPBSA chairman Barry Hearn , who thus implemented his announcement to provide more professional tournaments. It was conceived, among other things, as occupational therapy for the players, due to the low number of tournaments at the time, and to bring the sport closer to the spectators in other countries.

Seven to twelve such events were organized per season. The 24, later 32, most successful players qualified for the final tournament at the end of the season, in which prize money was distributed that was many times higher than in the previous tournaments.

The tournaments of one half were classified as UK tournaments - in the first year all six took place in the Snooker Academy in Sheffield , England , in the second year two of them were awarded to Gloucester . The other half are pan-European tournaments, which in the first year were still referred to as E-PTC tournaments. For this, venues were chosen on the continent or in Ireland. The Paul Hunter Classic in Fürth , which has existed since 2004, was included in the series, four more tournaments were newly launched for the PTC series and changed in the first two years. The sixth European tournament took place in England. The distinction was also made to promote snooker outside of England. Whoever wanted to qualify for the PTC finals must have participated in at least three European and three UK tournaments.

The final tournament of the first season 2010/11 took place in Ireland's capital Dublin .

PTC tournaments had a different qualification mode than normal ranking tournaments: all Main Tour players start in one round, there was no pre-qualification for players in the lower ranking positions. The games were drawn, which means that two top favorites can meet in round one (no seeding lists). Depending on requirements, there were one or more qualification rounds for amateurs who could also qualify for the Main Tour with good results at PTC tournaments.

The Best of 7 tournament mode was significantly shorter than in full-fledged ranked tournaments.

End of the PTC series

In 2016, the end came for the PTC for financial reasons. The tournaments had remained a grant business throughout the tournament series. The last winner of a PTC preliminary tournament was Mark Selby from England .

Winner (final tournaments)

year	venue	winner	Result	finalist	Main sponsor	season
2011	Dublin - The Helix	Shaun Murphy	4-0	Martin Gould	PartyCasino.com	2010/11
2012	Galway - Bailey Allen Hall	Stephen Lee	4-0	Neil Robertson	Betfair	2011/12
2013		Ding Junhui	4: 3	Neil Robertson	Dafabet	2012/13
2014	Preston - Guild Hall	Barry Hawkins	4-0	Gerard Greene	Wyldecrest Parks	2013/14
2015	Bangkok - Montien Riverside Hotel	Joe Perry	4: 3	Mark Williams		2014/15
2016	Manchester - EventCity	Mark Allen	10: 6	Ricky Walden	Ladbrokes	2015/16

Winner (preliminary tournaments)

player	number	title
Mark Selby	7th	PTC 2 (2010) , Paul Hunter Classic 2011 , Paul Hunter Classic 2012 , Munich Open 2013 , Antwerp Open 2013 , Riga Open 2014 , Gdynia Open 2016
Mark Allen	5	Antwerp Open 2012 , Ruhr Open 2013 , Kay Suzanne Memorial Cup 2013 , Paul Hunter Classic 2014 , Bulgarian Open 2015
Stuart Bingham	4th	APTC 1 (2012) , APTC 3 (2012) , Dongguan Open 2014 , Haining Open 2014
Ding Junhui	4th	PTC 5 (2010) , Scottish Open 2012 , Yixing Open 2014 , Haining Open 2015
Shaun Murphy	4th	Brugge Open 2010 , Gdynia Open 2014 , Bulgarian Open 2014 , Ruhr Open 2014
Neil Robertson	4th	Warsaw Classic 2011 , Alex Higgins International Trophy 2011 , Gdynia Open 2012 , Gdynia Open 2015
Judd Trump	4th	Paul Hunter Classic 2010 , PTC 2 (2011) , Antwerp Open 2011 , Bulgarian Open 2012
John Higgins	3	Ruhr Championship 2010 , Kay Suzanne Memorial Trophy 2012 , Bulgarian Open 2013
Stephen Maguire	3	FFB Snooker Open 2012 , PTC 1 (2012) , Lisbon Open 2014
Ronnie O'Sullivan	3	PTC 1 (2011) , Kay Suzanne Memorial Trophy 2011 , Paul Hunter Classic 2013
Tom Ford	2	PTC 3 (2010) , PTC 11 (2011)
Michael Holt	2	Prague Classic 2010 , PTC 10 (2011)
Stephen Lee	2	MIUS Cup 2010 , APTC 2 (2012)
Joe Perry	2	Yixing Open 2013 , Xuzhou Open 2015
Mark Williams	2	PTC 1 (2010) , Rotterdam Open 2013
Marcus Campbell	1	Rhein-Main Masters 2010
Allister Carter	1	Paul Hunter Classic 2015
Dominic Dale	1	PTC 6 (2010)
Marco Fu	1	Gibraltar Open 2015
Martin Gould	1	PTC 2 (2012)
Barry Hawkins	1	Riga Open 2015
Andrew Higginson	1	PTC 5 (2011)
Ju Reti	1	Zhangjiagang Open 2013
Rod Lawler	1	PTC 3 (2012)
Liang Wenbo	1	Zhengzhou Open 2013
Rory McLeod	1	Ruhr Open 2015
Barry Pinches	1	PTC 4 (2010)
Ricky Walden	1	Bluebell Wood Open 2013
Ben Woollaston	1	PTC 3 (2011)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Rolf Kalb : Snooker - End of an Era: The European Tour is history (and still lives on). In: eurosport.de. Eurosport , February 29, 2016, archived from the original on March 2, 2016 ; accessed on March 2, 2016 .