Tag: Albany Bahamas

Tavistock owner Joe Lewis, who developed Isleworth and Lake Nona, pleads guilty to securities fraud scheme

The beneficiaries of the non-public information sharing reaped millions of dollars in gains, according to the filing.

British multi-billionaire Joe Lewis – principal owner of Tavistock Group, the developer and owner of several elite golf courses in Florida and the Bahamas – pled guilty Wednesday to charges of a securities fraud scheme in federal court in Manhattan.

Prosecutors had charged Lewis, 86, with sharing insider information about the dealings of companies in which he was a large investor. Those who benefitted from the illegal information sharing included personal acquaintances such as romantic partners, assistants, friends and his pilots, according to an original filing by the United States Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York. The beneficiaries of the non-public information sharing reaped millions of dollars in gains, according to the filing.

Tavistock Group developed several notable golf properties, including Isleworth Golf and Country Club in Orlando and the nearby Lake Nona Golf and Country Club. Many notable golf professionals live at these Central Florida properties, and past residents include Tiger Woods – it was at Isleworth where Woods in 2009 famously crashed into a fire hydrant, landing him in a nearby emergency room.

The company operated the Tavistock Cup from 2004 to 2013, with PGA Tour and LPGA stars from the company’s courses competing in a team event. Besides Isleworth and Lake Nona, that event grew to include the company’s Albany property in the Bahamas and several other clubs not developed by Tavistock.

In all, the Bahamas-based holding company has investments in more than 200 companies, including the soccer club Tottenham Hotspur of the English Premier League. Tavistock Group reports on its website that it’s focused primarily on real estate, hospitality, agriculture and financial services.

After initially denying any wrongdoing six months ago, Lewis pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, which carries a maximum potential sentence of five years in prison, and two counts of securities fraud, which each carry a maximum potential sentence of 20 years in prison. His acceptance of a plea deal will shorten his potential time behind bars.

As part of the plea deal, Lewis and his company Broad Bay Ltd. will pay $50 million in financial penalties. Lewis also faces federal sentencing guidelines of 18-24 months in prison, but the judge can reduce that sentence. A sentencing date has not been selected. Lewis also must relinquish any board seats he held in publicly traded companies in the U.S.

“I knew that I was violating a legal duty not to make those recommendations because the nonpublic information had been entrusted to me in confidence,” he said according to an Associated Press report. “I knew at the time what I was doing was wrong, and I am so embarrassed and I apologize to the court for my conduct.”

Prosecutors wrote that in addition to the insider trading, Broad Bay Ltd. and other corporate entities under the direction and control of Lewis engaged in a scheme to hide his ownership and control shares of a pharmaceutical company through a pattern of false filings and misleading statements.

“Today’s guilty pleas once again confirm – as I said in announcing the charges against Joseph Lewis just six months ago – the law applies to everyone, no matter who you are or how much wealth you have,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams. “Billionaire Lewis abused inside information he gained through his access to corporate boardrooms to tip off his friends, employees and romantic interests. Now, he will pay the price with a federal conviction, the prospect of time in prison and the largest financial penalty for insider trading in a decade.”

Why Matt Fitzpatrick’s curiosity about an obscure local model rule led to Collin Morikawa’s 2-stroke penalty

“It’s nothing personal.”

NASSAU, Bahamas — Collin Morikawa got docked two strokes on Sunday morning in one of the more bizarre rulings on the PGA Tour in a long time – which is saying something.

If you’re unfamiliar with this week’s installment of “the Rules of Golf can be wacky,” you can read the backstory about why Morikawa was assessed two strokes for violating local model rule G-11, which restricts the use of green-reading material, on the fourth hole of the third round of the Hero World Challenge here. But the part of the story that couldn’t be told until players talked after the round was how the violation was reported in the first place.  And how did Morikawa and his caddie, JJ Jakovac, take the news?

In regards to the first question, chief referee Stephen Cox of the PGA Tour did confirm that Matt Fitzpatrick was responsible for bringing the subject to light. One rush to judgment was that the Englishman had ratted out Morikawa but that isn’t the case. Rather, he was simply looking for confirmation of a rule, which went into effect in 2022, when the USGA and R&A banned the green-reading books that took much of the skill out of reading a putt.

On the fourth green on Saturday, Fitzpatrick heard Morikawa ask his caddie about the break and witnessed Jakovac refer to his yardage book for the answer.

“I have wanted to use AimPoint earlier this year,” Fitzpatrick explained on Sunday after finishing T-4. “I spoke to my putting coach, Phil Kenyon, about it. He told me that he was pretty certain I can’t write the numbers down or use the AimPoint numbers. So, you know, I didn’t do it. And then obviously yesterday it happened and I asked Coxy just to clarify what the situation was. I asked the question and he was like, ‘Well, now you’ve asked the question, I need you to tell me what’s going on.’ That was it.

“Listen, it’s nothing personal. Whether it was Tiger or whoever, it’s just I wanted to know because I would have used it earlier this year.”

Fitzpatrick never broached the subject directly with Morikawa and, in fact, he forgot about it after the round. He didn’t text Cox until later that evening.

“It wasn’t until I was back in the house like where I was staying and someone was talking about putting or something like that. I was like, oh, [shoot], like I have that question,” Fitzpatrick recalled.

Morikawa cleared up another mystery in all of this: how could he be so sure that Jakovac only violated the rule that one time on the third hole on Saturday?

“I promise you it only did happen on the fourth hole because he read a putt wrong on the first hole with his feet and I fired him in the first round from reading my putts,” Morikawa explained.

Morikawa expressed no problem with Fitzpatrick bringing the potential violation to light, noting, “He did what any competitor should do.”

Morikawa also sided with his caddie, who he said had asked a different rules official if measuring the slope on the green with a level device was legal – which it is – but a player and/or caddie can’t write those figures down in his yardage book.

“He had asked other officials, he had asked other caddies and it sounded as if other people were doing this. And when you ask an official something, you assume it’s right,” Morikawa said. “Well, apparently if they tell you something wrong one day in a different tournament does not carry on, and I understand that, we made the mistake.”

But Morikawa wondered: “Why are there gray areas? There shouldn’t be gray areas in the rules, right? That’s what rules are for.”

Morikawa expressed some frustration at the process of how he was alerted to the possible infraction. Cox initially texted Jakovac in the morning a few hours before Morikawa’s tee time. Jakovac didn’t say anything to Morikawa at first because he didn’t want to concern him if there wasn’t any issue. Cox sent a second text with about 45 minutes left in Morikawa’s warmup calling for a meeting in the locker room.

“We go there and we’re looking for him and he’s nowhere to be found,” Morikawa said.

Cox is nothing if not punctual and was doing his due diligence to make sure he had his ducks in a row but Morikawa was equally frustrated with the process as he was with the ruling.

“Just give it to me, right?” Morikawa said. “If I broke the rules, I broke the rules and that’s on me, I have to take it.”

A two-stroke penalty turned his third-round score from 70 into a 72. Even before he teed off, his tall task at catching leader and eventual champion Scottie Scheffler grew from six back to eight back. It’s a mistake he and Jakovac likely will never make again.

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Scottie Scheffler’s new putter is en fuego, the putting whisperer’s busy week and Tiger’s Sunday pairing among takeaways from the Hero World Challenge

Scottie Scheffler may have found a new favorite club.

NASSAU, Bahamas — Scottie Scheffler may have found a new favorite club.

The world No. 1 inserted a putter in the bag for a tryout this week at the Hero World Challenge and ranks third in the field in Strokes Gained: Putting. On Saturday, he made two eagles and four birdies and posted 7-under 65 at Albany to build a three-stroke lead over Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick.

“Nice to see some putts go in,” Scheffler said. “I’ve been rolling it pretty solid. These greens can be tough to putt at times, but like I said, I’m rolling it good.”

Indeed, he is. Scheffler is using a heel-toe weighted blade made by little-known puttermaker Olson Putter Co.

“It’s very similar to some stuff that I used in the past,” Scheffler explained. “It has a little thing on the top that helps me line the ball up more consistently in the middle of the face, and then obviously the grip is different than what I’ve used in the past, but that’s something that Phil (Kenyon) and I have worked on together.”

Scheffler’s 65 tied for the low round of the day with Fitzpatrick, and lifted him to a 54-hole total of 16-under 200.

Scheffler, who last won on the PGA Tour at the Players Championship in March, finished runner-up at the Hero World Challenge the last two years. Both times he said he needed a strong back nine to flirt with contention, but Viktor Hovland closed the deal.

“Hopefully,” Scheffler said, “I have one more good back nine in me.”

Here are four more things to know about the third round of the Hero World Challenge.

After 3 rounds at Hero, here’s the quick and dirty report card on Tiger Woods

There’s reason for optimism for Tiger Woods.

NASSAU, Bahamas — Tiger Woods had 100 yards to a pin tucked in the back right corner of the 11th green at Albany on Saturday. It was the type of shot he used to pull the string like a yo-yo, tap-in for birdie and move on to the next hole.

Woods selected a sand wedge and lofted the shot into the wind. It’s a shot he has hit hundreds of time, and perhaps for the first time in a long time he was in his own estimation 3 ½ steps too long, the ball bounding over the green. Death. He made yet another bogey on a par 5, the holes he cleaned up on during his prime.

“That was a hard shot,” Woods said. “It’s going to get stood up in the wind and I had to take off… trying to hit it right there pin high and I missed by three and a half steps.”

Still, there’s reason for optimism for Woods, and he had no trouble finding it after the round.

Tiger bounced back from a shaky bogey-bogey start with four birdies over the next seven holes. He made a birdie and two bogeys on the inward nine to shoot 1-under 71. Two days in a row in red figures isn’t too shabby after a seven-month layoff from competitive golf.

But Tiger knows that stats don’t lie – well, maybe sometimes – but not on this occasion. He has been negative Strokes Gained against the field in all three rounds in SG: Approach and SG: Putting. For the week, he ranks 20th in SG: Approach (and 19th in proximity) and 19th in SG: Putting. That doesn’t sound too bad except for the fact the Hero is a 20-man field. Dead last in approach the green for one of the best iron players of all-time is about as un-Tiger-like as it gets.

Is that just rust? Maybe. But it suggests he’s going to need more reps to get ready to play the majors in 2024. Albany is typically a birdie-fest, and he’ll need to be much sharper. His rounds have stalled on the back nine – he’s 6 under on the front and 6 over on the back, which typically is the tougher side – which suggests he may be running out of gas, understandably. The good news is that Tiger still has plenty of pop – he’s averaging 308 yards off the tee – and is encouraged by how his body is feeling and that’s a win for the week.

“To be able to knock off some of the rust as I have this week and showed myself that I can recover each and every day, that was kind of an unknown as far as I’ve walked this far, I’ve done all my training, but add in playing and concentration and adrenaline and all those other factors that speed up everything, I’m very excited how the week’s turned out,” he said.

Tiger, who underwent yet another surgery in April to fuse the subtalar (joint just below the right ankle) and address arthritis caused by his previous talus (ankle) fracture, still is walking gingerly at times but this week (so far) ranks as the best he’s looked physically in a while.

“I can always hit it, I could never get from point A to point B. Once the bone on bone was relieved with the fusion, it’s felt night and day,” he said. “I don’t have mobility, but the fact that I’m able to walk and participate again without having to feel the way I felt just trying to do it again, that was frustrating. Now I’m able to do it. Now it’s just a matter of getting the reps in.”

Asked whether his back is of concern, he said, “My back hurts every day. It is what it is, that’s just life. But I can deal with that, that’s not a problem.”

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A pair of Texans lead, Tiger’s travails at 15 and Lucas Glover comes up aces among 5 things to know at Hero World Challenge

Here’s what you need to know from the second round in the Bahamas.

NASSAU, Bahamas — The world No. 1 is reminding us at the end of the year just how good he can be.

On Friday, Scottie Scheffler made eight birdies en route to shooting 6-under 66 at Albany Club to share the lead with Jordan Spieth at 9-under 135 at the halfway point of the Hero World Challenge. Brian Harman was alone in third a stroke back and Tiger Woods, who is making his first start since the Masters, roared to an opening-nine 32 before his round stalled and he settled for a 2-under 70.

There was a lot to like about Scheffler’s round —the low one of the day by the 20-man field — but when asked to name what he did best, he said, “I drove it well, gave myself a lot of chances. Yeah, that’s probably the thing I did best.”

Scheffler, who opened in 69, made birdie on three of his first seven holes before making a bogey on No. 8 after getting what he called a bad break. He heated up on the back nine with four birdies in a five-hole stretch beginning at No. 11.

“Kind of got into a nice groove there,” he said. Hit a good iron shot into 10, two good shots into 11, good iron shot on 12 and then I just hit a lot of quality shots and got some looks. That’s really just what I did best.”

Scheffler is trying to end the year on a high note. He’s a candidate for Player of the Year after notching two wins but hasn’t hoisted a trophy since the Players Championship in March.

Here are four more things to know from the second round of the Hero World Challenge.

Tiger Woods starts hot, struggles late Friday at 2023 Hero World Challenge

Woods shot 2-under 70 in the second round in the Bahamas.

Tiger Woods started brilliantly Friday, but it was once again a struggle on the way back to the clubhouse.

Woods’ second round in the 2023 Hero World Challenge at Albany in the Bahamas got off to a brilliant start, making birdies on his first two holes and sitting 4 under thru 7 and at the turn. Similar to Thursday’s opening round, he struggled as the day wore on. However, Woods was five shots better Friday, shooting 2-under 70 at the unofficial event that benefits his TGR Foundation.

“It was better than yesterday, for sure,” Woods said. “I’ve been more committed than I was yesterday. I made a few mistakes and overall the round was better, for sure. The start was better, the middle part of the round was better. I missed a couple putts there towards the end I thought would have kept the round going and unfortunately it kind of stalled out a little bit. Certainly better than it was yesterday.”

Woods made bogey after a three putt from 13 feet on the par-4 13th. Then, with only 182 yards left on his second shot into the par-5 15th, he made bogey after his birdie putt rolled back into a greenside bunker where he played his third shot from.

TIGER TRACKER: Woods’ second round with shot-by-shot analysis

Then on the par-4 16th, his approach shot came up short, and he was unable to get up and down, marking his third bogey in four holes.

He stopped the bleeding with a long birdie putt on the par-3 17th hole, salvaging the day and giving him a bit of momentum heading into the weekend.

When his second round finished, Woods ranked first in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee, but he was dead last in putting among the 20 players in the field. However, he sits at 1 over for the tourney after 36 holes in his return to action after nearly eight months.

Check the yardage book: Albany for the 2023 Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas

Check out the details of the course where Tiger Woods makes his comeback to competitive golf.

The golf course at Albany in New Providence in the Bahamas – site of the 2023 Hero World Challenge – was designed by Ernie Els and opened in 2010. The layout ranks No. 25 on Golfweek’s Best 2023 list of top courses in Mexico, the Caribbean, the Atlantic islands and Central America.

On the island of Nassau, Albany’s layout features five par 5s and five par 3s. Part of a resort community, it plays to 7,449 yards with a par of 72.

Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the players – including Tiger Woods in his comeback to competitive golf – face this week. Check out the maps of each hole below.

Shot-by-shot analysis: Tiger Woods shoots 2-under 70 Friday at 2023 Hero World Challenge

Woods is trying to improve on an opening 3-over 75.

Another day, another late morning and afternoon glued to the TV watching Tiger Woods in his return to competitive golf.

Big Cat returned Thursday for the first time since the Masters in April, shooting 3-over 75 at the 2023 Hero World Challenge in a round that started promising and dropped off toward the end. There was no shortage of excitement from Woods, however, and it was encouraging to see him moving freely throughout the day.

He sat 18th in the 20-person field after the opening day.

Woods teed off in the second round with Rickie Fowler at 11:02 a.m. ET. Check out his Friday round with shot-by-shot analysis below from Albany in the Bahamas.

Best shots: Check out Tiger’s Hero highlights

Social media was thrilled Thursday morning before Tiger Woods’ tee time at the Hero World Challenge

Only Tiger Woods can generate April buzz in November.

Christmas doesn’t come for another 25 days, but some people (especially golf fans) woke up Thursday morning feeling rather joyful.

The reason? Tiger Woods was playing in a competitive golf tournament for the first time in nearly eight months. Big Cat gets going at 11:52 a.m. ET playing with Justin Thomas in the 2023 Hero World Challenge at Albany in the Bahamas.

No one gets social media talking in the golf world like Woods, and fans from everywhere were chiming in to mark the return of Woods and celebrate him being back in the competitive fold.

Here’s a look at some of the best reactions on social media to Woods’ return, including from a former major champion.

Shot-by-shot analysis: Tiger Woods shoots 3-over 75 Thursday at 2023 Hero World Challenge

Woods is making his return to competitive golf for the first time since April.

If you couldn’t watch Tiger Woods during the first of the 2023 Hero World Challenge on Thursday afternoon, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

The 15-time major champion returned to action this week at the 2023 Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas for the first time since the Masters. Woods, 47, is playing his first competitive round since having a subtalar fusion procedure to address his post-traumatic arthritis from his previous talus fracture (a break in one of the bones that forms the ankle). He said he has none of the pain he dealt with at Augusta National.

Woods teed it up in the first round with Justin Thomas at 11:52 a.m. ET. Check out his Thursday round with shot-by-shot analysis below from Albany in the Bahamas.

Best shots: Check out Tiger’s Hero highlights
Reaction: Fans and players are ready to watch Tiger again