At the 2011 Australian Goldfields Open, Bingham defeated Ding 5–3 in the opening round, completed a whitewash over Tom Ford, then completed victories over Allen and Murphy to reach the final. Trailing 5–8 to Mark Williams, Bingham won four frames to win 9–8 and collect $60,000 for the first prize. This was the first ranking event win of his 16 year professional career. The win was enough to put Bingham up to 11th in the world rankings, and a place in the 2012 Masters. He drew Judd Trump in the first round and led 3–2 before losing four frames in a row to exit the tournament 3–6. He could not recapture the form he showed in Australia in the remaining seven ranking events, as he failed to get past the second round in any of them, culminating in a 4–10 loss to Stephen Hendry in the first round of the World Championship. Despite the defeat, Bingham finished the season ranked world number 16.