At the Welsh Open, Woollaston eliminated Thanawat Thirapongpaiboon, Mark Davis, Mark Allen and Ali Carter. He then won four consecutive frames in beating Gary Wilson 5–2 to face home favourite Mark Williams in the semi-finals. Woollaston led 5–3 and missed multiple chances to wrap up the match in the next two frames allowing Williams to send it into a decider. 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. Higgins fluked a green that helped him edge the first session 5–3 which seemed to sway the whole match as he took all four frames played upon the resumption of play to win 9–3. Afterwards, Woollaston stated that he had never felt he belonged with the top players in the televised stages of ranking events until this week. Woollaston came back from 67–0 down in the deciding frame of his first round Indian Open match to beat Yu Delu on a re-spotted black, and then lost 4–1 to Kyren Wilson in the second round. His best season to date ended with a 10–6 loss to Robin Hull in World Championship qualifying. Woollaston's ranking of 32 in the world after the event was at that point the highest he had ever finished a season.