| Tournament Name: | 1981 Benson & Hedges Masters |
| Venue: | Wembley Conference Centre |
| Location: | London |
| Country: | England |
| Organisation: | WPBSA |
| Format: | Non-ranking event |
| Total Prize Fund: | £20,500 |
| Winners Share: | £6,000 |
| Highest Break: | (136) |
| Score: | 9–6 |
| Previous: | 1980 |
| Next: | 1982 |
The 1981 Masters (officially the 1981 Benson & Hedges Masters) was a professional non-ranking snooker tournament that took place from Tuesday 27 January to Sunday 1 February 1981 at the Wembley Conference Centre in London, England. The number of invited players had been raised to 12, which saw Steve Davis make his Masters debut and a rise in prize money. With the increase in the number of players the tournament was extended from 5 days to 6, with a Sunday finish.
Alex Higgins reached his fourth consecutive Masters final by defeating Cliff Thorburn 6–5 in the semi-finals, despite having trailed 1–5. There he reversed the result of the 1980 final against Terry Griffiths, who had himself made a dramatic recovery to beat John Spencer 6–5 in the semi-finals, after trailing 2–5 and needing two snookers in the eighth frame. Griffiths set a new tournament record break of 136 in the final. The tournament attracted 18,742 spectators in its six days, including a new British tournament record of 2,422 for the final session.
| Final: Best of 17 frames. Referee: John Smyth Wembley Conference Centre, London, England, 1 February 1981. | |||
| Alex Higgins | 9–6 | Terry Griffiths | |
| First session: 117–10 (75), 38–69, 54–64, 62–47, 99–38, 58–31, 20–69, 69–10, 77–37, 75–39, 113–5, 0–136 (136), 31–97, 51–62, 85–48 | |||
| 75 | Highest break | 136 | |
| 0 | Century breaks | 1 | |
| 1 | 50+ breaks | 1 | |
Total: 2[4]