What if…the PTC’s hadn’t existed?

Following a bit of a debate on Twitter a couple of weeks ago during which I discussed what a potential ranking list would look like without the PTC, a few of you wanted to have a look at just what it would look like and it sure makes interesting reading…

Now before anyone gets confused, this list is purely for fun and of course we will never know exactly how the rankings would have shaped up without the PTCs as people would have been in different seeding positions and so on, but it is nevertheless an interesting look.

What I have done is to take my projected seedings list which includes minimum points for the World Championship, and simply deduct all points earned this season during the PTC.

Notable points include a different number one, Stephen Hendry up nine places and comfortably inside the top 16 and the likes of Mark King, Joe Perry, Ryan Day and Ken Doherty would all be much higher, while Stuart Bingham, Stephen Lee and Marcus Campbell would drop down the order. Dominic Dale too would drop out of the 32 while Steve Davis would be up eight to 36.

The real changes however would be further down the order as the likes of Jack Lisowski and Anthony McGill would drop from 52nd and 59th to 66th and 78th respectively, potentially both off the tour!

On the contrary, James Wattana would be up in 51st and well safe, whereas in reality he has lost his tour spot. Stuart Pettman, Patrick Wallace and David Gilbert too would also be safe on the tour while they have in fact lost their places.

Again, it is just a what if scenario and whichever set of rankings is best will no doubt depend on your point of view, but perhaps what it does show is that the likes of Hendry and Day are more dangerous at the full events than their actual ranking would suggest…

Compare the list to my actual provisional list which includes the PTC points and is the one that really matters.