Holt almost delivered on this statement straight away as he reached the final of the Riga Masters, the first ranking event of the 2016–17 season. He got past reigning world champion Mark Selby 4–1 and then beat Ian Burns and Stuart Bingham both 4–3 and Anthony McGill 4–0.&lt;ref name="2016/17"&gt;&lt;/ref&gt; His semi-final with Mark Williams was decided on the final brown in a deciding frame. In Holt's first ranking event final he took a slender 2–1 lead over Neil Robertson, but was defeated 5–2. Holt beat Ronnie O'Sullivan for the second time in a row when he knocked him out 5–2 in the second round of the Shanghai Masters. He had a chance to force a deciding frame in the quarter-finals against Ding Junhui but a missed black off the spot saw him lose 5–3. Another win over O'Sullivan came in the third round of the International Championship, before narrowly losing 6–5 to Stuart Bingham in the quarter-finals. Holt lost in the second round of the UK Championship, German Masters and China Open. He was one win away from qualifying for the World Championship and his tie with Peter Ebdon went to a final frame decider. Holt went in-off on the final blue and Ebdon potted the final three balls to win 10–9.