Snooker stars divided on £792k Saudi prize as Ronnie O’Sullivan shares his ideas
The Riyadh Season Snooker Championship has a golden ball worth $1m and snooker’s biggest stars have given their opinions on what they’d do with their winnings
Snooker’s biggest names have shared their wildly different plans for spending the whopping £792,000 ($1million) prize money up for grabs at this week’s Riyadh Season Snooker Championship. The Saudi Arabia-based tournament is heating up with the semi-finals taking place today (December 20), leaving only four contenders in the running for the eye-watering cash bonus. The golden ball, offering an even bigger reward than when the tournament was last held in March, has made a comeback. The Championship, previously known as World Masters of Snooker, was won by Ronnie O’Sullivan earlier this year, who pocketed a cool £250,000. The addition of the gold ball, which offers competitors a lavish incentive, has only added to the financial appeal.
The coveted ball is worth 20 points and can only be potted after a 147 has been made, making a 167 available to players. The ball remains on the top cushion throughout a frame as long as a player can still complete the maximum break, and is removed once the opportunity has passed.
John Higgins came close to bagging the ball last year but fell short. However, while last time a hefty $500,000 was up for grabs for a 167, this time the prize has been doubled to a staggering $1m for the first player to achieve it.
There were vastly differing opinions from snooker’s eliter on what they’d splash out on if they had a cool $1m to spend. O’Sullivan claimed: “I couldn’t spend a million dollars.” He then said he’d buy a school.
Meanwhile, Mark Selby replied: “I would probably buy myself another super car, probably a Ferrari.” Mark Williams put the rest to shame by claiming he’d hand over the whole lot to his wife.
Shaun Murphy said: “Well, I think if you can find one for $1m then it would be a 1964 Aston Martin DB Five – the only car to buy.” For Luca Brecel, it would be a house in Majorca.
Mark Allen’ announced that he would drop “a couple of hundred grand on an AP watch”, while Judd Trump declared he would create and run his own tournament with the prize money and make up his own snooker rules to “see how it goes”.
Zhang Anda simply said he would’ve bought a “big house” should he have taken his chance to win the pot. O’Sullivan is one of the four still in with a shout of winning the mega money.
After winning back in March, the 49-year-old said that he was aiming for the golden ball this time around. “I’ll get the golden ball next year. I didn’t want to take it all at once,” he said.
“I’ll take the tournament this year and then the golden ball next year. It’ll be great.” Today’s order of play sees O’Sullivan facing Allen after he dispatched Ding Junhui. Williams takes on Brecel in the other semi-final. Williams beat Judd Trump to land his semi-final spot, while Brecel booked his place with a victory over Kyren Wilson.
