Woollaston has twice reached the final group stages of the Grand Prix in 2006 and 2007, enjoying a marginally better tournament in 2006 by winning two matches compared to none in 2007.

[6] His performances in the other 11 PTCs, including a quarter-final run in Event 8, saw him claim ninth place in the Order of Merit and therefore qualify for the 2012 Finals.

[13] He fared much better in the minor ranking PTC events, as he was a losing quarter-finalist in four of the ten tournaments to finish 10th on the Order of Merit.

[16] Woollaston kept his form going into the World Championship Qualifiers by beating Thailand's Thepchaiya Un-Nooh 10–3 in the third round to face Ryan Day, just one match short of reaching the main draw of the tournament for the first time.

[18] He drew last year's runner-up Ali Carter and from leading 3–1 and 4–3 Woollaston lost seven frames in a row to exit the tournament, saying afterwards that he had struggled to maintain his confidence and concentration during the match.

[21] He saw off Vinnie Calabrese and Alfie Burden with the loss of just one frame to reach the last 32 of the Welsh Open, where he came close to knocking out Ding Junhui but lost 4–3.

[22] In the minor-ranking European Tour event the Ruhr Open, Woollaston edged out reigning world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan 4–3 and then whitewashed Burden and Chris Norbury 4–0, before losing in a final frame decider to Stephen Maguire in the quarter-finals.

[24] Woollaston beat Ding, a four-time winner on the tour this season, 4–3 having been 3–0 behind to advance to the last 16 of a ranking event for the second time this campaign, where he was eliminated 4–2 by John Higgins.

[29] A week later he achieved the first maximum break of his career at the Lisbon Open in his last 128 match against Joe Steele, but lost 4–3 against Peter Ebdon in the next round.

He made a match-winning 60 break to play John Higgins - who had been the favourite player for Woollaston growing up – in his first ranking event final.

Afterwards, Woollaston stated that he had never felt he belonged with the top players in the televised stages of ranking events until this week.

[39] At the World Open, Woollaston recorded 5–2 and 5–1 wins over Gary Wilson and Ding Junhui, and made a 135 to level his third round tie with Joe Perry at 4–4, but lost the deciding frame.

[40] He got to the fourth round of the English Open by beating Cao Yupeng 4–1, Zhang Anda 4–3, and Ali Carter 4–2, and was defeated 4–3 by Liang Wenbo.