GOLF

Three tied at 9 under after first round of PGA’s Pebble Beach tournament

Dustin Johnson pitched in for eagle on the third hole at Pebble Beach to get a small measure of revenge. He wound up with a 9-under 63, and part of a three-way tie atop the leaderboard in the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am on Thursday.

Charlie Wi flirted with a 59 without even knowing it at Monterey Peninsula. He made par on his last three holes for a 9-under 61, while former U.S. Amateur champion Danny Lee had a 9-under 63 at Pebble Beach.

Tiger Woods made a solid start to his PGA Tour season at Spyglass Hill. He made six birdies in a round of 4-under 68, leaving him in a tie for 15th after the opening round. Woods is playing this tournament for the first time in 10 years.

DUBAI DESERT CLASSIC: Rafael Cabrera-Bello made nine birdies in his first 11 holes to finish at 9-under 63 for a two-shot lead after the first round in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Marcel Siem and Scott Jamieson each shot 65.

U.S. Open Champion Rory McIlroy was three shots back, making seven birdies on the last 10 holes.

WOMEN’S AUSTRALIAN OPEN: American Stacy Lewis and Australia’s Sarah Kemp shared the lead at 4-under 69 at Melbourne, Australia, leaving top-ranked Yani Tseng a stroke back in her bid to win the event for the third straight year.

HIGH SCHOOLS

SOFTBALL: Maureen Curran was hired as softball coach at Cheverus High.

Curran, who is currently a girls’ basketball assistant and English teacher at the school, previously coached field hockey at Bowdoin College and South Portland High, where she also started a girls’ lacrosse program and coached softball.

Curran is a 1994 graduate of Dartmouth College and received a master’s degree in sports management from the University of Richmond in 1998.

TENNIS

OPEN GDF SUEZ: Marion Bartoli of France defeated Petra Martic of Croatia 7-5, 6-1 to reach the quarterfinals in Paris while Americans Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Christina McHale failed to make it out of the second round.

Roberta Vinci of Italy and Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium also moved into the quarters along with Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic and Germans Mona Barthel and Angelique Kerber.

DAVIS CUP: Roger Federer will face John Isner in the second singles match today when Switzerland takes on the United States in the first round of the Davis Cup at Fribourg, Switzerland.

Eighth-ranked Mardy Fish will open for the U.S. against No. 28 Stanislas Wawrinka.

BASKETBALL

WNBA: The Washington Mystics signed veteran free-agent center Michelle Snow, who has career averages of 9.0 points and 6.4 rebounds in 334 games over 10 seasons with Houston, Atlanta, San Antonio and Chicago. She is also eighth on the league’s career blocks list with 350.

• Sue Bird is returning to the Seattle Storm for an 11th season and likely beyond after agreeing to a multiyear deal with the only franchise she’s played for.

RUNNING

BOSTON MARATHON: Reigning Boston Marathon champions Geoffrey Mutai and Caroline Kilel lead the field of elite runners for the 116th edition of the event in April 16.

CYCLING

BANNED: Sport’s highest court banned 1997 Tour de France winner Jan Ullrich for two years and stripped him of his third-place finish in the 2005 race for a doping violation.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that the 38-year-old German was linked to the Operation Puerto, a 2006 Spanish doping probe.

— From staff and news services