gallantrabbit wrote:Ok so someone at 80 in the world is not 'on tour' but can enter all the tournaments and play Selby in the first round?
Everybody officially ranked is 'on Tour'.
It is complicated, but here's my very rough guess as next season's Tour:
This is a good guide to standings -
http://www.snooker.org/res/index.asp?te ... eason=2016Top 64
(64)2nd Year of 2-year-Tour card
(33)Invitational: James Wattana
(1)Q-School
(12)One-year-ranking list leaders (not already qualified from the above criteria
(8)That's
118 players already...
Then, further top-ups from:
World Amateur Champion & U21 Champion
(2)European Amateur Champion, U21 Champion and U18 Champion
(3)Possibly, Asian Amateur Champion & U21 Champion
(2)Also likely to be European Amateur order-of-merit, or European Amateur play-offs, say
(2)And then, potentially, 'token' nominations from Oceania, The Americas and Africa
(3)That will get the Tour to around 128-130 players (no problem, as they're
all not going to enter every event!...amateur top-ups will be required) - and as can be seen, Jimmy White (at present) doesn't qualify through any of the above - although, Q-School has yet to be played for next season's Tour!
But, I'm sure, he'll join Wattana on an Invitational card. I'd argue that Ken Doherty should get one too, if Wattana is still getting one!
I hope that helps to explain why 'dropping out' of the Top 64, for a player in Jimmy's situation, is significant.