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January 17, 2019 - 9:14 am EST 6 years ago

Fernandez-Castano Calls Out Fellow Pro For Cheating

Chris Chaney Chris Chaney

The European Tour is getting its first taste of the new Rules of Golf this week at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. From putting with the flagstick in, to new nomenclature and dropping from knee height, some pros, like Lee Westwood, were able to have some fun with the new rules…

…others, however, like Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano took the opportunity to roast a fellow European Tour pro on social media for cheating. 


“First competitive round of the year on @EuropeanTour with the new rules on effect,” Fernandez-Castano’s tweet began, harmlessly. “Tapping down spikemarks felt so weird, it will take some time to get used to it – Unless you are Simon Dyson and you have been doing it for years.”

Fernandez-Castano may have been referencing multiple instances in which Dyson, an English Tour pro, has skirted the rules, but there is one instance in particular for which he had been penalized in 2013. 

Word of the call-out eventually made its way to Dyson who seemed none too pleased to be dragged back into a rules controversy that is six years old. Dyson responded in a series of tweets.

“The incident was 6 years ago,” he wrote. “Some of us have actually moved on.”

He then posted another message that read, “If you want to be truly happy, do not dwell on the past, do not worry about the future. Focus on living in the present! Some people are clearly very unhappy.”

Fernandez-Castano didn’t have much to say beyond his original criticism, sending out one other tweet with the above video of Dyson’s penalty while responding to former European Tour pro Andrew Murray, who called Fernandez-Castano’s call-out “so unnecessary.”

“The shocker is when you see a fellow player breaking the rules Andrew.”