Irving to practice with Nets at Brooklyn facility
Brooklyn Nets point guard Kyrie Irving, who remains unvaccinated against COVID-19, now will be allowed to practice at the team’s home facility despite a New York City mandate requiring vaccination to enter certain large indoor spaces.
According to The Athletic and ESPN, the Nets’ practice facility in Brooklyn, the HSS Training Center, has been reclassified as a “private office building” instead of a gym. Gyms and large entertainment venues like the Barclays Center fall under the city’s mandate, while private offices do not.
That means Irving can rejoin the team for home practices going forward — but it does not settle the matter of Brooklyn’s 41 home games this upcoming season.
Irving sat out the Nets’ first preseason home game Friday against the Milwaukee Bucks, listed as “ineligible” by the team due to his vaccination status.
The Nets haven’t made clear whether they’re willing to accommodate Irving as a de facto part-time player this season. Brooklyn opens the regular season with two road games before welcoming the Charlotte Hornets for an Oct. 24 home opener.
San Francisco has instituted a vaccine requirement similar to New York’s, and Los Angeles announced one going into effect in late November.
Irving will receive a reduction in pay equivalent to 1/91.6 of his salary for every game he misses due to his vaccine status.
Golf
BURNS IN CONTENTION >> Sam Burns won the Sanderson Farms Championship last week and is trying to put it behind him. He’s playing as though it never ended.
Burns made a pair of 6-foot par putts on the only two greens he missed in regulation, ran off eight birdies in the morning for an 8-under 63 that left him a shot behind Sungjae Im and Chad Ramey in the Shriners Children’s Open.
Not only has Burns won twice in the last six months, he also lost in a playoff at a World Golf Championship and finished one shot out of a playoff at Riviera this year. The 25-yearold is comfortable at the top, and it’s showing.
Im and Ramey each closed their afternoon rounds with birdies on the par-5 ninth, with Ramey making a 13-footer after hitting his approach into the right greenside bunker.
Ramey and South Korea’s Im both birdied their final hole. MICKELSON SHARES LEAD AT FURYK & FRIENDS >> Phil Mickelson posted a 6-under 66 to grab a share of the first-round lead at the Constellation Furyk & Friends in Jacksonville, Fla.
Matt Gogel birdied four of his final five holes at to match Mickelson at 6 under. The pair are one stroke ahead of Cameron Beckman and Frank Lickliter II.
Five of Mickelson’s seven birdies came on the front nine at Timuquana Country Club. Had Mickelson not bogeyed his final hole, he would have the lead all to himself.
Mickelson, 51, has prospered in his limited time playing Champions Tour events. He won in his first two appearances and is making just his fourth start on the tour this week.
KO LEADS FOUNDERS CUP >> Jin Young Ko had a three-stroke lead with four holes left Friday when second-round play in the LPGA Tour’s Cognizant Founders Cup was suspended because of darkness.
Play was delayed 2 1/2 hours because of fog, the second straight day that fog forced a late start at Donald Ross-designed Mountain Ridge. Sixtythree players were unable to finish.
The second-ranked Ko was 10 under. She opened with an 8-under 63 on Thursday for a three-shot lead. She has 11 consecutive rounds in the 60s, three short of the record that Annika Sorenstam set in 2005.
In six starts since losing the top spot in the world to Nelly Korda at the KPMG Women’s PGA, Ko has won twice, been runner-up and had two other finishes in the top 10. The 26-year-old South Korean star had control of the ShopRite LPGA Classic last week in southern New Jersey until she missed a series of putts from the 10-foot range, including the last hole to finish one shot behind Celine Boutier.
Lindsey Weaver, So Yeon Ryu and Perrine Delacour were tied for second at 7 under.