Venue Ormonde Hotel Country Ireland Format Non-ranking event | Location Kilkenny Established 1975 | |
Organisation(s) World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association | ||
The Irish Masters was a professional snooker tournament. It was founded in 1978, following on from the successful Benson & Hedges Ireland Tournament (alternatively known as the Benson & Hedges Ireland Championship). The final champion of the tournament was Ronnie O'Sullivan.
History
The Benson & Hedges Ireland Tournament started out as a challenge match in 1975 between Alex Higgins and John Spencer. In 1976 and 1977 the event was staged as a four-man invitational, and was replaced by the Irish Masters in 1978. Benson & Hedges continued their sponsorship with the tournament being played at Goffs, Co. Kildare. After tobacco sponsorship was outlawed in Ireland in 2000, the Irish government funded the event from 2001 and it was subsequently relocated to the Citywest Hotel, Saggart, Co. Dublin. The tournament was staged on an invitational basis for most of its existence but became a ranking tournament from the 2002/03 season. The event was dropped from the calendar in the 2005/2006 season. In 2007, a three-day invitational event known as the Kilkenny Irish Masters was staged with 16 players. It attracted a strong field with 9 of the world's top 16 players taking part, with Ronnie O'Sullivan winning the title.
The tournament has been dominated most of all by Steve Davis, who has won the tournament 8 times. It has only been won by Irish players on two occasions, Alex Higgins in 1989 and Ken Doherty in 1998. Doherty claimed the title despite losing in the final 3 frames to 9 after his opponent, Ronnie O'Sullivan, failed a subsequent drugs test. There was only one official maximum break in the history of the tournament. John Higgins made it in the quarter-finals of the 2000 event against Jimmy White. There has been one further maximum break in 2007 by O'Sullivan, but it is not included in the list of official maximum breaks.