ANTHONY MCGILL has claimed his second ranking title of this season
Winning the Coral Snooker Shootout 2017 a few months after winning the Indian Open - his maiden title at the beginning of the season.
McGill, 26, ends the drought of under-30 players who have not won a ranking event this season since Liang Wenbo's English Open endeavours in the Home Nations series.
The Scot told ITV4 after: "It shouldn't be a ranking event, but I'll take it."
He beat China's Xiao Guodong in the final - who was appearing in his second Shootout final within three years.
In 2015, he lost to Michael White.
McGill's great run in the Shootout has these benefits:
1) He pockets £32,000 and the trophy
2) He's now a member of the elite top 16 provisionally at 16th, and if he stays there for the cut off at the China Open, he will be automatically through to the Crucible stage of the World Championships.
And that means he won't be at Ponds Forge in Sheffield battling it out in three matches just to get to the Crucible!
3) McGill also is into the Champion of Champions in Coventry later this year.
4) The Smiling Assassin, as he is called, is the first Scot to have won the one frame ranking event.
Much controversy has overshadowed the Shootout since Barry Hearn decided to make it a ranking tournament.
5) McGill's win in Watford also means he is in the Players Championship in Llandudno next week in Wales which includes the likes of Ronnie O'Sullivan and Mark Selby.
WATCH McGill's incredible win in the video below
But, the facts speak for itself:
Everyone's a winner
1) Many of the players who played will have benefitted from the ranking points, especially lower down the list.
In fact, some will be on the road to saving their tour cards, and others will have had a modest boost from the rankings.
2) The Shootout didn't lose any of its excitement from being a ranking event. If anything, there was a mixture of fun, table frolics and serious competition.
3) Finally, the tournament ended up with a top 20 player winning the event, and proves the age old saying, "the cream of the crop always rises to the top."
Despite some top players deciding not to play, it has showed that snooker can be fun and competitively serious at the same time, but you certainly wouldn't want there to be more than two tournaments in this format per year.
In other top 16 movers and shakers, according to the provisional rankings from Snooker.org, Mark Williams, the two-time World Champion is out of the top 16 and is 17th!
