NEWCASTLE, Northern Ireland (AP) — Rory McIlroy delivered enough superb shots in a strong wind Saturday for a 2-under 69, giving him a one-shot lead over Matteo Manassero in the Irish Open as McIlroy tries to erase two bad memories on home soil.
McIlroy had to settle for bogey on the par-5 closing hole at Royal County Down when he hit a half-shank from the rough for his third shot. Even so, the wind was so severe that he matched the low score of the third round. Only three other players shot 69, and four others broke par.
Manassero, who started the day with a one-shot lead, did his best to hold on. He dropped only one shot over the last 10 holes, on the 17th when he pulled his tee shot into high grass and could only chop back to the fairway. He two-putted from 50 feet to escape with bogey.
McIlroy was at 6-under 207 as he goes for his second Irish Open title. He has yet to win in Northern Ireland, and it has not gone well for him previously. McIlroy opened with an 80 when the Irish Open was last held at Royal County Down in 2015. And at the British Open five years ago at Royal Portrush, he opened with a 79. Both times he missed the cut.
“I'm excited to give myself a chance,” McIlroy said. “The last couple of times I've played in Northern Ireland it hasn't panned out the way I wanted. I can't get too far ahead of myself, but I'm excited to go out there and give it my all.”
Robert MacIntyre was in a four-way tie for third after a 69, leaving the Scot in the mix to add a third national title to his credit this year. MacIntyre previously won the Canadian Open in June and the Scottish Open in July.
Jordan Smith (69), Erik van Rooyen (71) and Rasmus Hojgaard (71) also were at 3-under 210.
The roughest day belonged to Todd Clements, playing alongside McIlroy before the largest galleries. Clements started one shot behind and posted an 85.
Manassero did well to stay close. He was in trouble off the 17th tee and made bogey. On the par-5 closing hole, he rammed his 50-foot birdie attempt some 10 feet by the hole, and made that for par to stay one behind.
“They are not birdies but they always feel like them a little bit, and that’s how it is out there,” Manassero said. “I would have loved to not get beaten from the golf course but I think I did really well to finish with two 5s, to be honest.”
McIlroy opened with an approach that used the slope to perfection for his shot to roll down to 6 feet for eagle. His best shot was a 7-iron into 6 feet on the par-3 seventh. Any birdie after the par-5 first hole felt like a bonus.
“It was a matter of trying to par as many holes as possible,” he said.
He saved par from behind the 17th green. On the 18th, he pushed his drive into the right rough, hit into nasty rough on the left and then hit a half-shank that bounced off the grandstands to the right. He chipped beautifully to 6 feet but missed the par putt to settle for 69.
“I definitely would have taken the score before I went out today,” he said.
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf
Matteo Manassero looks over a putt on the fifth green during the third round of the Irish Open golf tournament at Royal County Down in Newcastle, Northern Ireland, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (Peter Morrison/PA via AP)
Matteo Manassero waves after putt on the sixth green during the third round of the Irish Open golf tournament at Royal County Down in Newcastle, Northern Ireland, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (Peter Morrison/PA via AP)
Rory McIlroy reacts to putt during the third round of the Irish Open golf tournament at Royal County Down in Newcastle, Northern Ireland, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (Peter Morrison/PA via AP)
Rory McIlroy plays from the rough on the 13th hole during the third round of the Irish Open golf tournament at Royal County Down in Newcastle, Northern Ireland, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (Peter Morrison/PA via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — For 10 months, rumblings, lawsuits, law enforcement raids and mounting allegations of widespread sexual abuse had surrounded Sean "Diddy Combs. The business empire, cultural cachet and fatherly image he had cultivated in the decades since he became a hot young hip-hop mogul in the 1990s had begun to erode.
On Tuesday, those ripples became a wave with the unsealing of a sweeping indictment alleging years of sex trafficking and conspiracy, to which he pleaded not guilty before a federal magistrate ordered him jailed without bail as he awaits trial.
The indictment accuses Combs of presiding over a sordid empire of sexual crimes that used his “power and prestige” for “sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, drug offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice.”
It describes the inducement of female victims and male sex workers into drugged-up, elaborately produced sexual performances dubbed “Freak Offs" that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during and often recorded. The events would sometimes last days and require IVs to recover from, the indictment said, and Combs used his employees as though they were a film crew.
It alleges he coerced and abused women for years while using blackmail, including the videos he shot, and shocking acts of violence to keep his victims in line, coordinated and facilitated from the top down by a network of associates and employees.
Combs' attorney Marc Agnifilo declared his client's innocence, and said they would appeal the bail decision, with a hearing expected Wednesday afternoon. Combs, 54, was led out of court without handcuffs, and turned to his family as he left.
“Sean Combs has never evaded, avoided, eluded or run from a challenge in his life,” the defense said in a court filing. “He will not start now."
For all the revelations that came Tuesday, most of the acts it outlines had been described in detail in the original November lawsuit filed by his former longtime girlfriend and protege, the R&B singer Cassie, whose legal name is Cassandra Ventura. The suit was settled the following day, but its allegations would do anything but go away.
Its descriptions of beatings, sexual assaults, silencing tactics and “Freak Offs” were echoed throughout the criminal indictment, though it did not use her name or the names of any other women.
Agnifilo, also without naming Ventura but clearly referring to her, argued at Tuesday's arraignment that the entire criminal case is an outgrowth of one long-term, troubled-but-consensual relationship that faltered amid infidelity.
The “Freak Offs,” Agnifilo contended, were an expansion of that relationship, and not coercive.
“Is it sex trafficking?" Agnifilo asked. “Not if everybody wants to be there.”
Prosecutors, however, portrayed the scope as far larger. They said in court papers that they had interviewed more than 50 victims and witnesses and expect the number to grow.
Like many aging hip-hop figures — including many of those he beefed with in the bi-coastal rap feuds of the 1990s alongside the Notorious B.I.G. — the Bad Boy Records founder Combs had established a gentler, more worldly public image, as a doting father to seven children and a respected international businessman, whose annual “White Party” in the Hamptons was once a must-have invitation for the jet-setting elite.
But prosecutors said he used the same companies, people and methods he used to build his business and cultural power to facilitate his crimes. They said they would prove it with financial, travel and billing records, electronic data and communications and videos of the “Freak Offs” to prove their case.
Both Ventura's lawsuit and a Tuesday court filing from prosecutors say Combs set fire to someone’s vehicle by slicing open its convertible top and dropping in a Molotov cocktail, and describe his punching Ventura, dragging her by her hair and kicking her at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.
Security video aired by CNN in May showed that beating. Combs soon apologized, saying, “I was disgusted when I did it.” But it would be a major turning point in public perception. He returned a key to the city at the request of New York Mayor Eric Adams, and Howard University cut ties with him.
“A year ago, Sean Combs stood in Times Square and was handed a key to New York City," Manhattan-based U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said at a news conference Tuesday. "Today, he’s been indicted and will face justice.”
The AP does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Ventura did.
Combs was arrested late Monday in a Manhattan hotel, roughly six months after federal authorities raided his luxurious homes in Los Angeles and Miami and revealed they were conducting a sex trafficking investigation.
During the searches, law enforcement seized narcotics, videos of the “Freak Offs” and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant, according to prosecutors. They said agents also seized firearms and ammunition, including three AR-15s with defaced serial numbers.
The indictment portrays Combs as so violent that he caused injuries that often took days or weeks to heal. His employees and associates sometimes witnessed his violence and kept victims from leaving or tracked down those who tried, the indictment said.
A conviction on every charge in the indictment would require a mandatory 15 years in prison with the possibility of a life sentence.
Combs and his attorneys denied similar allegations made by others in a string of lawsuits filed after Ventura's.
Dalton reported from Los Angeles.
From right, Justin Dior Combs, Quincy Brown and King Combs, arrive at Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Marc Agnifilo, attorney for Sean "Diddy" Combs, arrives at Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams speaks about federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges against Sean "Diddy" Combs during a news conference, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
Marc Agnifilo, attorney for Sean "Diddy" Combs, arrives at Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
FILE - Sean "Diddy" Combs appears at the premiere of "Can't Stop, Won't Stop: A Bad Boy Story" on June 21, 2017, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)
Marc Agnifilo, attorney for Sean "Diddy" Combs, arrives at Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
From left, King Combs, Quincy Brown and Justin Dior Combs arrive at Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
In this courtroom sketch, Sean Combs, center, is flanked by his defense attorney Marc Agnifilo, left, and Teny Garagos, in Manhattan Federal Court, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams speaks about federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges against Sean "Diddy" Combs during a news conference, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)
FILE -Sean 'Diddy' Combs participates in "The Four" panel during the FOX Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour in Pasadena, Calif., Jan. 4, 2018. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)
In this courtroom sketch, Sean Combs, seated right, looks at his attorney, Marc Agnifilo, left, as he delivers his bail argument as Combs' family in the gallery, background, raise their hands indicating to Judge Tarnofsky that they are in attendance, to bolster the defense attorney's bail argument, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in Manhattan Federal Court in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
