Hamilton then lost 5–9 in the last 32 of the UK Open to Raymond van Barneveld. He reached the final of the tenth Players Championship of the year and held a 5–3 lead over his opponent Colin Lloyd, before losing 5–6. At the World Matchplay he beat Dolan and Mark Webster, but was then defeated 11–16 in the quarter-finals by Phil Taylor. Hamilton won through to his second Players Championship final of the year at the 12th event in September, but lost 4–6 to Simon Whitlock. He then beat Webster and Steve Beaton to make the quarter-finals of the World Grand Prix. Hamilton faced Michael van Gerwen and despite making a 160 finish to force a deciding set, he lost 2–3. Hamilton topped his group at the Grand Slam of Darts by winning all three of his games, before taking out four ton-plus finishes to edge past Gary Anderson 10–9. He beat John Part 16–12 in the quarter-finals, and led van Barneveld 6–3 in the semis, before the Dutchman put together a match defining run of nine straight legs and eventually triumphed 16–10. After all 33 ProTour events of 2012 had been played, Hamilton was 14th on the Order of Merit, which qualified him for the Players Championship Finals where he saw off Andy Smith and van Gerwen to play Taylor in the quarter-finals. Hamilton led 9–5 in the best of 19 legs match, on the verge of beating the 15-time world champion for the first time in a televised match, but Taylor came back and with the score at 9–8, Hamilton needed 60 for the match. He missed the board with his first dart and missed double 20 with his last, this being the only dart he had for the match as he lost 9–10.