Leonard Gates recently qualified for the UK Open via a qualifying tournament. But the American did not make himself very popular there.
Gates participated in one of the “Rileys Qualifiers,” the qualifying tournaments for amateur players that take place in various pubs across Great Britain. Afterwards, Gates received many accusations, including allegedly behaving rudely. “That’s no surprise to me,” Dutch American Jules van Dongen said of the accusations to Double Top podcast. “It has long been known in the USA that his social skills are not really there.”
“He is known for never wanting to take pictures with people. I don’t really know if he is an annoying guy or someone who is just bad with others. But it’s not good for his image either way.”
Van Dongen himself has never had any problems with Gates. “When I play against him I just get a hand. He can sometimes slow the game down or do some crazy things at the oche, though. I played with him last year at the World Cup of Darts, there was barely any conversation between us, but he wasn’t unfriendly either. At the end of the day, we were also just there to play for our country, you don’t have to be best friends. It certainly didn’t bother me that there was little contact between us.”
Van Dongen does recall an anecdote from last year. “At a tournament, my father was present and he asked Gates how he was doing. He just walked right past my dad and refused to shake his hand either. That’s just the way he is. When he was first active at the World Darts Championship, a lot of people thought he was a likable guy, but they looked weird about that in the USA. Oh well, there are many stories about him,” Van Dongen laughs.
