NBA
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson is expected to miss the upcoming season with a torn right Achilles tendon.
The team said Thursday in a tweet that an MRI performed in Los Angeles had confirmed the injury.
Thompson was injured during a pickup game in Southern California on Wednesday. General manager Bob Myers had said athletic trainers would head to Southern California to accompany Thompson as he got his test.
The injury is a big blow for the Warriors, who struggled without Thompson last season and at times without Stephen Curry, who had a broken left hand that sidelined him for more than four months.
Thompson didn’t play at all during the coronavirus-shortened season as he worked back from surgery for a torn ACL in his left knee. He suffered that injury in the deciding Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals against the Toronto Raptors.
GOLF
Tiger Woods still has one tournament left this year that might feel as big as any to him.
The PNC Championship announced that Woods will play with 11-year-old son Charlie in the tournament that has paired major champions with their sons since 1995, the year before the 44-year-old Woods turned pro.
“I can’t tell you how excited I am to be playing with Charlie in our first official tournament together,” Woods said. “It’s been great watching him progress as a junior golfer, and it will be incredible playing as a team together in the PNC Championship.”
The PNC Championship is Dec. 19-20 at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club Orlando in central Florida.
The most television exposure Charlie received was last year at Augusta National when Woods wrapped his son in his arms after winning the Masters for the fifth time, completing a comeback from four back surgeries. It was his 15th major, but the first his son saw him win.
Woods has caddied for his son in junior events, and one moment that got plenty of attention was the father of another junior trying to capture video of Woods, with Charlie and his smooth swing in the background.
Woods wrapped up his official year with an eventful Sunday in the Masters. He was well out of contention when he took a 10 on the par-3 12th hole, and then followed with five birdies over his last six holes.
The PNC Championship, the brainchild of longtime IMG executive Alastair Johnston, has gone through several iterations over the years to try to keep current with the times.
It allowed Fuzzy Zoeller to play with his daughter, Gretchen, and Arnold Palmer to play with his grandson, Sam Saunders. One year it had Aaron Stewart play with Paul Azinger after the boy’s father, Payne Stewart, died in a plane crash. Annika Sorenstam is playing with her father, Tom.
Added to the field this year is Justin Thomas playing with his father, longtime Kentucky club pro Mike Thomas.
BASEBALL
MILWAUKEE (AP) - The Milwaukee Brewers have promoted Matt Arnold to senior vice president and general manager.
Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns announced the move Thursday. He said it “formalizes how we have operated over the last few years.”
Stearns previously held the title president of baseball operations and general manager.
“We’ve operated in a partnership mentality for some time now, so I don’t really see much changing from a day-to-day perspective,” Stearns said. “I think we’re going to move forward much in the way we have, which is really working together on everything we do.”
Arnold, 41, joined the Brewers as a vice president and assistant general manager in October 2015. Arnold was promoted to senior vice president and assistant general manager in June 2019.
Now he has a new title once again.
“I think it was just the right time,” Stearns said. “Matt is deserving of this. We are at a place with our organization where we felt this was the appropriate structure. And clearly Matt has drawn meaningful interest from the rest of the industry for multiple years now, so this made a ton of sense for us to do.”
SKIING
Set for a return to ski racing after 300 days away, Mikaela Shiffrin is looking for the answer to a question she has been asking herself since March.
How will it feel to compete again?
“Hopefully it is a positive experience. And I don’t mean, ‘Hopefully I win,’ but hopefully it is a positive experience to be a ski racer, still, and hopefully that will be the driving force,” Shiffrin said two days before the longest break in her decade-long World Cup career is expected to end at a slalom in Levi, Finland.
“It didn’t really feel it was that long of a break,” she said. “This spring, summer, fall, this period since I last raced has been the busiest, most stressful time of my life. … I feel like racing is actually going to be like going on a vacation. Right now, I am just so grateful to be here.”
The two-time Olympic gold medalist and three-time overall World Cup champion is approaching her first race since Jan. 26, when she picked up her 66th career win at a super-G in Bulgaria.
Her father, Jeff Shiffrin, suddenly died a week later following an accident at the family’s home in Colorado.
A heartbroken Shiffrin took a five-week break before attempting a comeback at mid-March races in Sweden, having lost her lead in the overall rankings to Federica Brignone and in the slalom standings to Petra Vlhova. However, the event in Sweden was canceled, as was the remainder of the season amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“In February, after several weeks at home, I felt like skiing would be therapeutic,” Shiffrin said. “If possible, I wanted to try to race before the end of the season. But we got to Sweden and we tried, and I was like ready to step into the starting gate. Even if it was canceled, that was a really big step.”
___
More AP sports: https://apnews.com/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Please read our comment policy before commenting.