It feels like yesterday that World Snooker announced that new tour players would earn a two-year professional card, instead of just the one which had been the norm up until that point, but in fact the 2015/16 season marks the fourth season that the current system has been in place.
That means that we have now seen two waves of players to have been awarded the two-year cards, but just what sort of a difference have the extended cards made and have they made it easier for new players to break into the top 64 of the world rankings at the end of the two years?
Today then I take a look at how new professionals have fared in recent years and consider some of the other knock-on effects of the introduction of two-year cards and changes to the tour generally…
Following John Higgins’ victory at the Australian Goldfields Open yesterday, the official world rankings will now be revised for the first time this season with the Scot moving up a place to 12th, while runner-up Martin Gould also climbs one position to 25th.
