{"id":258288,"date":"2025-11-12T07:48:29","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T07:48:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/258288\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T07:48:29","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T07:48:29","slug":"tommy-fleetwood-reacts-to-criticism-from-golf-commentator-i-was-desperate-for-the-toilet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/258288\/","title":{"rendered":"Tommy Fleetwood reacts to criticism from golf commentator: “I was desperate for the toilet”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tommy Fleetwood has dismissed suggestions of “gamesmanship” during his play-off against Aaron Rai at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The in-form Englishman lost over extra holes to compatriot Rai last week at Yas Links in the first leg of the DP World Tour’s postseason.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rai was the first to arrive on the 18th tee box and even had enough time to have a little stretch before European Ryder Cup hero Fleetwood<\/a>, 34, turned up a few minutes later.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sky Sports’ golf commentator Andrew Coltart said he did not like the move by Fleetwood and insisted they should have arrived together.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He accused Fleetwood of gamesmanship.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

\"Tommy <\/p>\n

Tommy Fleetwood<\/p>\n

Fleetwood told reporters before the DP World Tour Championship<\/a> that he was not trying to mentally get one over on Rai. In fact, he regards him as one of his closer pals on Tour.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said he read “one little article” about his alleged gamesmanship but did not hear Coltart’s comments nor did he know the context of which they were said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fleetwood said the simple truth was that he needed to go to the toilet before the play-off and even asked a tournament official for permission before sprinting off.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I did see the comments, actually, just before,” Fleetwood said. “It’s one of those things, I don’t know – look, you don’t know in what context it was said. I didn’t hear it. I read it.<\/p>\n

Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

“Either way, if there’s a certain side of journalism where, you know, it’s conveyed – I feel like it’s disappointing, and you know, not even to, Andrew, I think very highly of him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I think he’s an amazing (commentator) – I’ve read one little piece and I’m not saying – whether the article was written that way. I’m not going to accuse anybody of meaning anything by it.<\/p>\n

“I’m just saying from my point of view, I had just played with Aaron for 36 holes, we are unbelievably close and unbelievably supportive in each other in our careers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I was desperate for the toilet, and then as soon as I was finished, I ran to the tee and that was how it happened.”<\/p>\n

Rai rolled in a birdie putt at the first play-off hole to seal victory.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It represented his third DP World Tour win and first since triumphing at the 2024 Wyndham Championship on the PGA Tour<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fleetwood continued: “So yeah, you know, I think everybody knows that I – or I would hope that everybody knows that I wouldn’t do anything like that, and I think the world of Aaron, as well.<\/p>\n

“So no, I don’t know how it was written. It’s hard to comment on something or defend yourself on something that you to the extent know in what form it was said or written.<\/p>\n

“But like I said, that’s what happened. We walked off the 18th and I was desperate to go to the toilet, I said to Miguel, ‘Can I please go to the toilet?’ He said yes. I ran to the toilet; ran to the tee.”<\/p>\n

Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tommy Fleetwood has dismissed suggestions of “gamesmanship” during his play-off against Aaron Rai at the Abu Dhabi HSBC…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,9643,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-258288","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-tommy-fleetwood","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}