On 1 July 2011, respected Dutch referee Jan Verhaas stated on his Twitter page that McLeod had refused to shake the hand of female snooker referee Ivy Zhu after his victory over Robert Milkins in a qualifier for the Australian Goldfields Open. Verhaas' comment read: "Rory McLeod refused to shake female ref Ivy Zhu's hand this morning because of his muslim beliefs. You may think what you like about it...". On 22 November 2014, after losing 4–0 to Judd Trump at the Ruhr Open, McLeod again refused to shake the hand of the female referee.