The Scottish Masters was held at the venue in Motherwell in 1993, ’96, ’97 and ’98 with O’Sullivan winning the tournament for the first time in that last year, beating John Higgins in the final.
It clearly made an impression on the Rocket, who has rated it as the best venue he has played in, narrowly beating Goff’s in County Kildare, which used to host the Irish Masters.
Speaking to Stephen Hendry on his Cue Tips YouTube channel, O’Sullivan said of his favourite venue: ‘I used to like Motherwell, I really liked that. Goff’s is obviously super-charged, but I’ll probably take Motherwell.’
O’Sullivan has hailed the Irish venue before, telling Colin Murray’s 52 podcast of Goff’s: ‘It’s the only time where I’ve played, when you hear people say “the hairs on the back of your neck stand up” that was the one time it did.
‘Goff’s is in Ireland, southern Ireland, County Kildare. About 20 minutes drive from Dublin.
‘What it’s basically for, it’s where all the horses are sold, all the top horses, where they buy all the Red Rums or whatever they are. It’s a massive stable, like a circle and they decided to put a snooker tournament on there.
‘Honestly, ask any snooker player who’s played there or just been there and watched any of the matches, they’ll all tell you, bar none, that it is the greatest snooker venue you’d ever get to play in.’
In the Q&A with his fellow seven-time world champion, O’Sullivan was asked on a wide range of topics, with a notable question being: which of Neil Robertson, Judd Trump, Shaun Murphy and Luca Brecel will be first to win a second world title?
O’Sullivan said: ‘I think either Brecel or Trump, law of averages would say Judd because he hasn’t won it for a while but he’s struggling a bit, so you never know with this game, but I’ll say Judd.’
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