Barry Hawkins urges snooker bosses to 'sort out' intense tournament schedule

The new 2026/27 World Snooker Tour season is already well underway; there were qualifying rounds for the China and Wuhan Opens earlier this month, and the Championship League Snooker Ranking Event broke off a few days ago. However, most of the sport’s biggest stars won’t play until the Shanghai Masters at the end of July.

A total of 18 ranking events are confirmed for this top-flight season (11 before the end of the calendar year, 7 after it) and four invitational events, although that will be five if the ‘167 gold ball’ Riyadh Season Championship returns.

Scheduling of events on the professional tour has been a hot topic in recent years with the circuit predominantly split between opposite sides of the world. This season, there are a record seven big tournaments being held in the Far East, all of which are expected to have top prizes of at least £175,000.

“That shouldn’t happen” Hawkins calls for calendar change

Looking ahead to his 2026/27 campaign, world number 10 and reigning Welsh Open champion Barry Hawkins spoke to 247Bet about the travel and time management logistics of being an elite player.

Hawkins - who first turned professional in 1996 - is happy with the number of events currently on the circuit, but feels that the scheduling could be improved, with players’ performances at risk due to jet lag.

“The number of events is good. It’s the schedule that needs sorting out” said the 47-year-old.

“Sometimes you’ve got a tournament finishing in Germany, and one starting in China the next day, and people are trying to get to the other side of the world right after playing in an intense tournament to go play in another straight away.

“Players are trying to get over the jet lag and play an important match within the space of just two days. That shouldn’t happen. It’s so difficult for the players to deal with, and they’re big events, so the fans deserve to see the players fresh too.

“As players, we want to be able to prepare properly and turn up as fresh as we can for each event. I would say players need a minimum of a week in between to recover properly. That’s the ideal situation. So you could finish up in Germany, fly home for a few days and then fly out to China.”

Looking at this season’s schedule, there are gaps between the end of one tournament and the start of another, although there are still a few of examples of very quick turnarounds. So many factors are in play when arranging an event calendar such as this; it’s likely impossible to keep promoters, organisers, sponsors, broadcasters, players, and fans all happy at the same time.

One thing that was mentioned last season was about having an ‘Asian swing’ on the circuit where several Chinese events are played in a condensed spell so players don’t need to travel back and forth from the UK/Europe so often. Again, though, if you had three Chinese events in as many weeks, players wouldn’t have a break in between them, and local promoters/sponsors probably wouldn’t want such a rush job.

What perhaps looks like a compromise, this season’s first three Chinese events will be played within a five-week spell - Shanghai Masters (July 27 to August 2), China Open (August 8-16) and Wuhan Open (August 23-29). This may be what some players called for, but it also means that they could be in the Far East for all that time, unless they travel back home in between events. Last campaign there was a similar arrangement, although that included the now defunct Saudi Arabia Masters.

“It takes a lot of mental strain”

There are two quick pivots this term with almost back-to-back events in different continents. The International Championship in China finishes on November 7th and the Champion of Champions in the UK starts on the 9th. The Welsh Open crowns its champion on February 14th but the World Grand Prix in Hong Kong breaks off less than 48 hours later.

The International Championship and Champion of Champions situation has been a predicament for a few years now. Organisers have had to leave arranging the schedule/order of play until late depending on how certain players do in China. Last year, Shaun Murphy was fuming that he had to play on the opening day of the competition in Leicester.

Last season’s World Grand Prix schedule drew harsh criticism from Kyren Wilson, while Judd Trump - who won the German Masters only a few days before - had little time to prepare for his opening match in the Far East, and ended up going out in the first round in Hong Kong. Former world champion Stuart Bingham also blasted the scheduling, labelling it as a ‘mockery’.

Hawkins is calling for consideration of players in such circumstances, and described how difficult it is to go deep in one event, but then start a new one just a few days later.

“It takes a lot of mental strain, because you’re putting so much into each event” said the former world championship runner-up.

“Mentally, you’re drained by the end of the week because you’re just constantly in work mode. It’s just snooker, snooker, snooker, so it’s a big release when you finish a tournament, especially if you’ve had a deep run or you’ve won it.

“After each tournament, you do need a few days just to come back down to earth a little bit and chill and then get in the mindset of wanting to play again. Especially after winning one.

“It’s tiring, really. Judd’s actually the only person I can think of who’s ever won a tournament in one country and then flown out to China, literally played the next day after winning a final, and ended up winning that tournament too. But even he looked knackered when he did it. It was amazing what he did, but it can’t happen all the time. That was a one-off.

“The schedule could do with sorting out, definitely. It’s great having all these tournaments all over the world. You can’t complain about any individual event because they’re all brilliant, but there must be a better way of scheduling it than how it has been done.”

Here at Totally Snookered, we intend to speak to the sport’s authorities in the near future to discuss their view of tournament scheduling.

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