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Sports

Charl Schwartzel wins $4.75 million in the inaugural LIV Golf event — the richest tournament in golf history

ST. ALBANS, England — Former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel banked $4.75 million Saturday by winning the richest tournament in golf history, while the event’s Saudi backers faced renewed backlash after a 9/11 victims’ group called for American players to withdraw from the rebel series.Schwartzel held on for a one-shot victory at the inaugural LIV Golf event outside London to secure the $4 million prize for the individual victory — along with another $750,000 from his share of the $3 million purse earned by his four-man Stinger team for topping the team rankings.AdvertisementSchwartzel, the 2011 winner at Augusta National, collected more prize money from winning the three-day, 54-hole event than he had from the last four years combined. It came at a cost, though, having resigned his membership of the PGA Tour to play on the unsanctioned series without a waiver.“Never in my wildest dreams did I think we could play for that much money in golf,” said Schwartzel, who had not won a PGA or European tour event since 2016.AdvertisementCharles Schwartzel holds up the trophy after he won the inaugural LIV Golf Invitational on Saturday at the Centurion Club in St. Albans, England. (Alastair Grant/AP)Fellow South African Hennie Du Plessis, who was selected for Stinger by team captain Louis Oosthuizen in the draft, earned $2.875 million by finishing second at Centurion Club, located between Hemel Hempstead and St. Albans.Schwartzel entered the final day with a three-shot lead and did just enough to hold off Du Plessis despite finishing with a 2-over 72 for a 7-under total of 203.It is the first of eight events in the first year of LIV Golf, which began against the backdrop of the PGA Tour banning players who signed up. The European tour has yet to comment on any sanctions for players who jumped to the series without its approval.Twenty players have defected from the PGA Tour, with Patrick Reed the latest, the former Masters champion confirmed Saturday as signing up to LIV Golf as the final round was being completed.However, the lucrative rewards for joining the series funded by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund have not been enough to entice any players ranked in the world’s top 10.[ [Don’t miss] Saudi-backed LIV golf tour, bound for Illinois, tees up geopolitical intrigue and moral quandaries ]Reed, who has won almost $37 million in a decade on the PGA Tour, is ranked 36th. The 31-year-old American’s only major win was the 2018 Masters.Having appeared at three Ryder Cups, at which he has been one of the brashest characters on the American team, Reed’s decision could see him ineligible for selection in the future.Reed said he would make his debut on the second stop of the LIV Golf series in Portland, Ore., on June 30-July 2.AdvertisementPat Perez, the 46-year-old American who is ranked 168th in the world, also joined the breakaway Saturday, saying he wants to travel less after 21 years on the PGA Tour. He made no mention on the LIV live broadcast about the riches on offer.Saudi Arabia’s track record of human rights violations has sparked criticism from groups, including Amnesty International, that the country is “sportswashing” its image by investing in signing up sports stars.LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman, who would not speak to the media at the event, called the series a “force for good” in a speech at the victory ceremony without addressing criticism of the Saudi project.LIV Golf plays up the financial largesse. Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of Saudi’s Public Investment Fund, said on stage that there would be a prize of $54 million for any player who could hit an implausible 54 at a LIV event.For many in the United States, Saudi Arabia will forever be associated with the collapse of the World Trade Towers and the deaths of nearly 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001. All but four of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were Saudi citizens, and the Saudi kingdom was the birthplace of Osama bin Laden, the head of al-Qaida and mastermind of the attack.Terry Strada, the national chairperson of 9/11 Families United, sent a letter to representatives of LIV Golf stars calling on them to reconsider their participation in the series. Her husband, Tom, died when a hijacked plane flew into the World Trade Center.Advertisement“Given Saudi Arabia’s role in the death of our loved ones and those injured on 9/11 — your fellow Americans — we are angered that you are so willing to help the Saudis cover up this history in their request for ‘respectability,’” Strada wrote, accusing the players of betraying U.S. interests.Strada’s letter was sent to agents for Reed as well as Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau and Kevin Na.“When you partner with the Saudis, you become complicit with their whitewash and help give them the reputational cover they so desperately crave — and are willing to pay handsomely to manufacture,” Strada wrote.“The Saudis do not care about the deep-rooted sportsmanship of golf or its origins as a gentleman’s game built upon core values of mutual respect and personal integrity. They care about using professional golf to whitewash their reputation, and they are paying you to help them do it.”Victims’ families are trying to hold Saudi Arabia accountable in New York despite its government’s insistence that any allegation of complicity in the terrorist attacks is “categorically false.”

Sports

Judge dismisses rape lawsuit against soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo for ‘bad-faith conduct’ of accuser’s attorney

LAS VEGAS — A Nevada woman has lost her bid in a U.S. court to force international soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo to pay millions of dollars more than the $375,000 in hush money she received after claiming he raped her in Las Vegas in 2009.U.S. District Judge Jennifer Dorsey in Las Vegas kicked the case out of court on Friday to punish the woman’s attorney, Leslie Mark Stovall, for “bad-faith conduct” and the use of leaked and stolen documents detailing attorney-client discussions between Ronaldo and his lawyers. Dorsey said that tainted the case beyond redemption.AdvertisementDorsey said in her 42-page order that dismissing a case outright with no option to file it again is a severe sanction, but said Ronaldo had been harmed by Stovall’s conduct.“I find that the procurement and continued use of these documents was bad faith, and simply disqualifying Stovall will not cure the prejudice to Ronaldo because the misappropriated documents and their confidential contents have been woven into the very fabric of (plaintiff Kathryn) Mayorga’s claims,” the ruling said. “Harsh sanctions are merited.”AdvertisementStovall did not immediately respond Saturday to telephone and email messages. Text messages to associate Larissa Drohobyczer were not answered. They could appeal the decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.Ronaldo’s attorney in Las Vegas, Peter Christiansen, was traveling and was not immediately reachable for comment.The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they are victims of sexual assault, but Mayorga gave consent through Stovall and Drohobyczer to make her name public.Dorsey had signaled earlier this year that she was ready to end the case after Stovall failed to meet a procedural deadline in his bid for more than $25 million in damages based on allegations that Ronaldo or his associates violated a 2010 confidentiality agreement by letting reports about it appear in European publications in 2017.Mayorga’s civil lawsuit — filed in 2018 in state court and moved in 2019 to federal court — alleged that Ronaldo or his associates violated the confidentiality agreement before the German news outlet Der Spiegel published an article titled “Cristiano Ronaldo’s Secret” based on documents obtained from “whistleblower portal Football Leaks.”Ronaldo’s legal team blamed the reports on electronic data leaks of documents hacked from law firms and other entities in Europe and put up for sale. Christiansen alleged also that information was altered or fabricated.Christiansen and attorney Kendelee Works in Las Vegas successfully fought since the case emerged in 2018 to prevent the pact from disclosure.Mayorga is a former model and teacher who lives in the Las Vegas area. Her lawsuit said she met Ronaldo at a nightclub and went with him and other people to his hotel suite, where she alleged he assaulted her in a bedroom. She was 25 at the time. He was 24.AdvertisementRonaldo’s legal team does not dispute Ronaldo met Mayorga and they had sex in June 2009, but maintained it was consensual and not rape.Mayorga went to Las Vegas police at the time, but the investigation was dropped because Mayorga neither identified her alleged attacker by name nor said where the incident took place, police and prosecutors said.Ronaldo, now 37, is one of the most highly paid and recognizable sports stars in the world. He plays for the English Premier League club Manchester United and has captained the national team of his home country, Portugal. He spent several recent years playing in Italy for the Turin-based club Juventus.Las Vegas police reopened their rape investigation after Mayorga’s lawsuit was filed, but Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson decided in 2019 not to pursue criminal charges.Wolfson, the elected public prosecutor in Las Vegas, said too much time had passed and evidence failed to show that Mayorga’s accusation could be proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt.Stovall maintained that Mayorga didn’t break the hush-money settlement. Her lawsuit sought to void it, accusing Ronaldo and reputation-protection “fixers” of conspiracy, defamation, breach of contract, coercion and fraud. In documents filed last year, Stovall tallied damages at $25 million plus attorney fees.AdvertisementThe attorney argued that Mayorga had learning disabilities as a child and was so pressured by Ronaldo’s attorneys and representatives that she was in no condition to consent to dropping her criminal complaint and accepting the $375,000 in August 2010.Dorsey followed recommendations from U.S. Magistrate Judge Daniel Albregts, who handled preliminary and procedural rulings in the case, that it be dismissed for bad faith, “inappropriate conduct” by Stovall and reliance on the leaked and stolen confidential documents.“There is no possible way for this case to proceed where the court cannot tell what arguments and testimony are based on these privileged documents,” Albregts said in an October 2021 report to Dorsey.Stovall “acted in bad faith by asking for, receiving, and using the Football Leaks documents to prosecute Mayorga’s case,” Albregts wrote. He blamed Stovall for “audacious,” “impertinent” and “abusive” attempts to make the confidentiality agreement public through legal maneuvers and the court record and recommended to Dorsey that she reject Stovall’s claim that Mayorga lacked the mental capacity to sign the 2010 agreement.The 9th Circuit ruled early this year that it would be up to Dorsey to decide that question.It was not immediately clear in Dorsey’s ruling whether the public might still get a look at the Las Vegas police report compiled about Ronaldo after Mayorga filed her lawsuit in 2018.AdvertisementAlbregts said in March that denying the New York Times access to what police collected “would almost certainly raise the ‘specter of government censorship.’” He recommended that Dorsey transfer to a state court the newspaper’s open-records request for documents.A protective order that Dorsey imposed to prevent the release of the 2010 agreement doesn’t apply to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Albregts found, and “does not bar LVMPD from disseminating its criminal investigative file.”Attorney Margaret McLetchie, representing the newspaper, did not immediately respond Saturday to a message about that case.