G League Ignite will not continue past this season
PALM HARBOR, FLA. >> Kevin Streelman has a new ball marker to help with alignment that required USGA approval before he teed off Thursday in the Valspar Championship. He had 10 consecutive one-putt greens on his way to a 7-under 64 and a oneshot lead.
Streelman took advantage of gorgeous weather while it lasts with birdies on all four of the par 5s on the Copperhead course at Innisbrook. He took only 24 putts for the round.
“I knew today was going to be solid and then it’s going to be hold-onto-your-shorts here for the next few days,” Streelman said. “So trying to just keep a good attitude and have some fun.”
Kevin Roy, who lost his PGA Tour card last year and is playing on a sponsor exemption, had eight birdies in his round of 65.
Streelman tried out a new ball marker during the pro-am. The circular piece on the top has a solid line and it has a long spike to put in the ground. He looks at the line and can turn the piece to give him a good visual before lining up his golf ball.
But he wanted to make sure it was legal, so the PGA Tour rules staff checked with the USGA. The spike can be no longer than an inch, so Streelman filed it down to that size.
“It’s kind of cool little new ball marker I’m using that is legal that can kind of give you some visual cues that I think is pretty helpful,” Streelman said. “I was using that today, which I think kind of helped, as well.”
His streak of one-putts started with a 5-foot birdie putt on the par-5 14th and ended with a birdie from 8 feet on the par-5 fifth. He had four par saves in that stretch, some more difficult than others.
It added to his lowest score since a 64 in the 3M Open in Minnesota last summer when he went on to a runner-up finish.
Carl Yuan was in the group at 66 and he had a good time under direct orders from his wife. It was his birthday. He turned 27. She didn’t want him to spend his day overthinking golf.
“Definitely had a little different mindset,” he said. “My wife called me this morning, told me about the birthday, so she said the only thing I’ll do is have fun on the course. Don’t come out here to do golf swings, just play golf. That’s what I did. Yeah, it worked out pretty good.”
Roy can relate, even without a birthday and cupcakes in his honor in the locker room. He was just happy to be at the Valspar Championship after finding out two weeks ago about his sponsor exemption. Roy missed the cut by one shot in eight PGA Tour events last year and finished 174th in the Fedex Cup.
NEW YORK >> The G League Ignite will not play after this season.
The league made the announcement Thursday, saying it was shutting down the Henderson, Nevada-based Ignite because of “the changing basketball landscape, including the NCAA’S Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) policy and the advent of collectives and the transfer portal” as its primary reasons.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver suggested this could happen last month at the All-star Game, saying then that the league was “reassessing” the Ignite program. It was started by the NBA to give players who aren’t yet eligible for the draft — but who didn’t want to go to college — a chance to essentially play professional basketball and prepare for the draft as part of a developmental but still competitive program.
“Four years ago, we started Ignite to fill a void in the basketball landscape, and I’m proud of the contributions we were able to make to that ecosystem,” G League President Shareef Abdurrahim said. “With the changing environment across youth and collegiate basketball, now is the right time to take this step.”
The changes in college basketball, particularly those allowing athletes to cash in through NIL deals, made the college experience more attractive to the types of players that the Ignite originally targeted.
The Ignite will play game on March 28. its final