Irish Masters
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The Irish Masters was a professional snooker tournament. It was founded in 1978, but only became a ranking tournament from the 2002/03 season. Up until 2000 it was played at Goffs, Co.Kildare. But after Benson & Hedges were banned from sponsoring the tournament in 2001, the tournament got a new sponsor, The Irish Government, as well as a new venue at The Citywest Hotel, Saggart, Co.Dublin.
The tournament has been dominated most of all by Steve Davis, who has won the tournament 8 times.
In 1998, Ken Doherty claimed the title despite losing in the final 9 frames to 3 after his opponent, Ronnie O'Sullivan, failed a subsequent drugs test.
In December 2005, the governing body of snooker, World Snooker, announced that the competition would not appear on the 05/06 calendar. They confirmed that this was because they had failed to reach an agreement with The Citywest Hotel and RTÉ over the dates on which the tournament could be held.
In March 2007, a three-day non-ranking tournament known as the Kilkenny Masters was staged with 16 players playing for the Paul Hunter Trophy. Although it was not a World Snooker Event, it attracted a strong field, with 9 of the world's top 16 players taking part as well as six local players and crowd favourite Jimmy White. The top four ranked players automatically qualified for the quarter-finals.
The tournament began with a round-robin group stage, with four remaining quarter-final places at stake. There were four groups of three players, with only the top player in each group making it through. The group stage was played as the best of seven frames, the quarter-finals best of nine frames, the semi-finals best of 11 frames and final best of 17 frames. Ronnie O'Sullivan won the tournament, beating Barry Hawkins 9-1 in the final.
[edit] Winners
* Ronnie O'Sullivan was stripped of his title in 1998 (a 9-3 win over Ken Doherty), after failing a drugs test by testing positive for cannabis.
