LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman, left, walks off the course after the final round of the LIV Golf Team Championship at Trump National Doral Golf Club, Oct. 30, 2022.The Associated Press
A U.S. federal judge has ruled the head of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the financial backer of LIV Golf, must sit for depositions and produce documents in LIV Golf’s antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour.
Lawyers for the Public Investment Fund and its governor, Yasir al-Rumayyan, had sought to quash subpoenas claiming sovereign immunity.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan van Keulen ruled late Thursday that PIF’s involvement falls under the commercial activity exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act.
Her decision allows the PGA Tour to seek documents and any communication related to such matters as LIV Golf’s recruiting and negotiating with players, its business plans and its involvement in the new league.
If the ruling holds, it could pull back the curtain on the PIF’s business dealings.
The ruling, seen as a victory for the PGA Tour, comes one week before LIV Golf is set to begin its second season offering $25 million in prize money at its 13 events, with $50 million for the team championship finale.
Any trial in the lawsuit would not be until at least January 2024.
Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau were among 11 players who originally filed the antitrust lawsuit in August. LIV Golf joined the lawsuit, and eventually all but three players – DeChambeau, Matt Jones and Peter Uihlein – removed themselves as plaintiffs.
In her 58-page ruling, some of which was heavily redacted, van Keulen said PIF’s involvement was of commercial interest to Saudi Arabia.
“It is plain that PIF is not a mere investor in LIV; it is the moving force behind the founding, funding, oversight, and operation of LIV,” she wrote in her decision. “PIF’s actions are indisputably the type of actions by which a private party engages in trade and traffic or commerce.”
She also said al-Rumayyan was “personally involved in and himself carried out many of PIF’s activities” related to establishing, funding and operation of the rival league.
LIV Golf has accused the PGA Tour of using monopolistic powers to squash competition.
The Saudi-backed league has 48 players that compete individually for $20 million in prize money and through four-man teams that offer an additional $5 million purse.
With bonus money involved, Dustin Johnson made $35.6 million last year in eight tournaments. Johnson, Mickelson, DeChambeau and four-time major champion Brooks Koepka were some of the biggest names to join with signing fees reported to be in the range of $150 million.
The PGA Tour has responded to LIV’s threat by created “elevated” events that offer $20 million in prize money, such as the Genesis Invitational this week in Los Angeles. Top players, led by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, are involved in building a new model for the PGA Tour aimed at bringing the top players together more often.
The PGA Tour suspended the players for violating its membership regulations, which include requiring a release to play in overseas events. The tour does not allow players to compete in other tournaments in North America.
LIV Golf has eight events in the United States this year.
The offseason for LIV Golf included a television contract with The CW, giving its tournament a broadcast partner for U.S. markets. Previously, tournaments were available only through YouTube or live streaming.
But the league has gone through its share of shakeups from within.
Majed Al Sorour, the CEO of Golf Saudi and managing director of LIV Golf, was transitioned out of that role last month. It was one of many changes at LIV Golf during the offseason in which its chief operating officer, chief marketing officer and chief communications officer have left the circuit.
LIV Golf has announced the addition of two more players for the second season – Mito Pereira of Chile, who is No. 46 in the world ranking; and Sebastian Munoz of Colombia, who is at No. 96.
PARIS – Canada won its first Paralympic medal in women’s sitting volleyball and ended the country’s team sport podium drought Saturday.
The women’s volleyball team swept Brazil 3-0 (25-15, 25-18, 25-18) to take the bronze medal at North Paris Arena.
The women were the first Canadian side to claim a Paralympic medal in a team sport since the men’s wheelchair basketball team won gold in London in 2012.
“Oh my gosh, literally disbelief, but also, we did it,” said veteran Heidi Peters of Neerlandia, Alta. “It’s indescribable.”
Canada finished seventh in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and fourth in Tokyo three years ago.
Seven players of the dozen Canadians were Rio veterans and nine returned from the team in Tokyo.
Eleven were members of the squad that earned a silver medal at the 2022 world championship.
“I know how hard every athlete and every staff member and all of our family back home have worked for this moment,” captain Danielle Ellis said.
“It’s been years and years and years in the making, our third Paralympic Games, and we knew we wanted to be there.”
The women earned a measure of revenge on the Brazilians, who beat Canada for bronze in Tokyo and also in a pool game in Paris.
“There’s a lot of history with us and Brazil,” Peters acknowledged. “Today we just knew that we could do it. We were like, ‘This is our time and if we just show up and play our style of volleyball, serving tough and hitting the ball hard, the game will probably going our way.’ And it did.”
Calgary’s Jennifer Oakes led Canada with 10 attack points. Ellis of White Rock, B.C., and Peters each contributed nine.
Canada registered 15 digs as a team to Brazil’s 10.
“Losing to Brazil in the second game was tough,” Ellis said. “It just lit the fire beneath us.”
Canada’s men’s wheelchair basketball team fell 75-62 to Germany in the bronze-medal game in Paris.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 7, 2024.
PARIS – Canadian para canoeist Brianna Hennessy raced to her first Paralympic medal with a reminder of her mother on her paddle.
The 39-year-old from Ottawa took silver in the women’s 200-metre sprint Saturday in Paris.
The design on Hennessy’s paddle includes a cardinal in remembrance of her late mother Norma, the letter “W’ for Wonder Woman and a cat.
“My mother passed away last year, so I said I’d be racing down the course with her,” Hennessy said Saturday at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium.
“In our family, a cardinal represents what our love means. My mum was my Wonder Woman, and this is a cardinal rising up. This is our family pet that passed away two months after my mum, of cancer, because I think their love was together.
“All this represents so much to me, so it’s my passion piece for Paris.”
Hennessy finished just over a second behind gold medallist Emma Wiggs of Britain in the women’s VL2 Va’a, which is a canoe that has a support float and is propelled with a single-blade paddle.
Hennessy’s neck was broken when she was struck by a speeding taxi driver in Toronto in 2014 when she was 30. She has tetraplegia, which is paralysis in her arms and legs.
“This year’s the 10-year anniversary of my accident,” Hennessy said. “I should have been dead. I’ve been fighting back ever since.
“This is the pinnacle of it all for me and everything I’ve been fighting for. It made it all worth it.”
After placing fifth in her Paralympic debut in Tokyo three years ago, Hennessy was a silver medallist in the last three straight world championships in the event.
She will race the women’s kayak single Sunday. Hennessy and Wiggs have a tradition of hugging after races.
“I always talk about the incredible athletes here, and how the Paralympics means so much more because everyone here has a million reasons to give up, and we’ve all chosen to just go on,” the Canadian said. “It’s more about the camaraderie.”
Hennessy boxed and played hockey and rugby before she was hit by the taxi.
She was introduced to wheelchair rugby by the Ottawa Hospital Rehabilitation Centre.
She eventually turned to paddling at the Ottawa River Canoe Club, which led her to the Paralympic podium in Paris.
“It has a good ring to it,” Hennessy said. “I’m so happy. I feel like we’ve had to overcome so much to get here, especially in the last year and a half. I’m just so proud.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 7, 2024.
