Briefly: Tiger Woods posts his best season start but lags well behind

Tiger Woods, playing for the first time since his record-tying 82nd PGA Tour victory, kept his score low Thursday in the Farmers Insurance Open at San Diego's Torrey Pines, but many others went far lower.

Woods shot a 3-under 69 on the easier North Course and was tied for 21st.

Sebastian Cappelen and Keegan Bradley had the low scores of the opening round. Cappelen shot a 66 on the South Course, which played about three shots tougher than the North, where Bradley shot his 66.

Rory McIlroy was among those at 67 on the South Course. Jon Rahm, playing alongside Woods, was in a large group at 68.

It was quite a fast start by Woods' standards. He hadn't broken 70 in his first round of the year since a 69 on the North at Torrey Pines in 2011.

"It was nice to kind of keep the round going a little bit," Woods said. "Overall, pleased to shoot something in the 60s."

Cappelen, a rookie from Denmark, played steadily and was among only five players to break 70 on the South Course.

Bubba Watson had a 67 on the South, which hosted the U.S. Open in 2008 and gets another U.S. Open next year.

Woods has won this event seven times, not including his 2008 U.S. Open title or the Junior World when he was a teenager. At stake this week is a chance to set the PGA Tour career victories record.

Jessica Korda shot a 6-under 66 in high wind to take a two-stroke first-round lead in the Gainbridge LPGA in Boca Raton, Fla. Play was suspended with 12 players still on the course.

The NFL said the number of concussions players suffered in 2019 increased slightly over 2018.

The league said there were 224 reported concussions, 10 more than in 2018. But those totals are way down from the 281 in 2017.

WNBA: Alana Beard, a two-time Defensive Player of the Year who won a WNBA championship with the Los Angeles Sparks, is retiring after 15 years, the Sparks announced.

Horse racing: Bricks and Mortar and his connections swept the top honors at the Eclipse Awards. Bricks and Mortar won all six of his 2019 races and was horse of the year. Chad Brown was trainer of the year for the fourth year in a row, and Irad Ortiz Jr. was jockey of the year.

College football: Jarren Williams, a redshirt sophomore who started 10 games last season, said he will transfer from Miami, where Houston graduate transfer D'Eriq King is expected to start.