GOLF

Pebble Beach opens with especially vicious weather

The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am showed its mean side Thursday in high wind, rain and still no shortage of entertainment.

Even moving the tee times up an hour to avoid storms in Pebble Beach, California, didn’t allow the opening round to finish before the greens held too much water to play. Seung-Yul Noh, Joel Dahmen and Rick Lamb each finished at Spyglass Hill at 4-under 68.

One shot behind was Jordan Spieth, still with two holes to play at Monterey Peninsula.

Spieth and Dustin Johnson caught the brunt of what amounted to a four-club wind along the coast. Johnson hit a driver, 3-wood and 4-iron into the 599-yard 12th hole and still didn’t reach the green.

EUROPEAN TOUR: Marc Warren shot a 9-under 63 to take a two-stroke lead after the opening round of the Maybank Championship at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The Scotsman nearly lost his playing card last year but a fifth-place finish at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship set up a strong end to 2016.

Thai teenager Phachara Khongwatmai was in second place after a 65.

BASEBALL

MAJOR LEAGUES: The Pirates acquired 25-year-old reliever Pat Light from Minnesota for a player to be named or cash.

Light was taken in the first round of the 2012 draft by the Red Sox, who traded him to the Twins at the deadline last season for Fernando Abad.

SOCCER

U.S. NATIONAL TEAM: Brad Guzan could start for the U.S. in critical World Cup qualifiers against Honduras and Panama next month despite his lack of playing time, and Tim Howard may return from leg surgery in time to be on the roster, Coach Bruce Arena says.

Stuck behind Victor Valdes, Guzan has made just two appearances for Middlesbrough since August.

Howard, 37, and the U.S. starter at the last two World Cups, regained the starting job last fall, then suffered a significant groin injury during a 2-1 qualifying loss to Mexico. Guzan, 32, finished the match and played in a 4-0 loss at Costa Rica.

BIATHLON

DOPING RAID: The Austrian federal criminal agency said Thursday it raided the lodgings of the Kazakh national biathlon team on the eve of the world championships on suspicion of doping.

Police said they seized medical equipment, drugs and mobile phones late Wednesday, adding that criminal authorities were investigating whether Austrian anti-doping laws had been breached.

Immediately after the raid, anti-doping officials visited the Kazakh team to conduct tests and take blood and urine samples.

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Simon Schempp helped Germany win the team relay gold in the opening event at Hochfilzen, Austria, holding off a challenge by Martin Fourcade of France and Anton Shipulin of Russia in his final lap.

The German team of Vanessa Hinz, Laura Dahlmeier, Arnd Peiffer and Schempp missed seven targets but avoided penalty loops to finish in 1 hour, 9 minutes, 6.41 seconds.

TENNIS

ROTTERDAM OPEN: Australian Open finalist Rafael Nadal has pulled out of the tournament in the Netherlands next week, saying his doctors told him to take it easy after his surprise run in Melbourne.

OPEN DE SUD DE FRANCE: Second seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France needed only 45 minutes to reach the quarterfinals at Montpellier, beating Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-1, 6-2.

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