Snedeker takes Houston Open lead

Brandt Snedeker found a lot of fairways and greens at difficult Memorial Park, topranked Dustin Johnson returned from the coronavirus, and fans were back, too, at the Houston Open.

Snedeker shot a 5underpar 65 in the afternoon to take a twostroke lead in the last event before the Masters. He’s one of 37 players in the field this week set to play at Augusta National.

The tournament — at public Memorial Park for the first time since 1963 — is limiting ticket sales to 2,000 a day. It’s the first domestic PGA Tour event to have fans since The Players Championship on March 12.

Johnson had a 72 — bogeying five of the last seven holes on his front nine — in his return after a positive coronavirus test knocked him out of the CJ Cup at Shadow Creek and the Zozo Championship at Sherwood.

Jason Day was tied for second with Scottie Scheffler, Harold Varner III, Carlos Ortiz, Michael Thompson and Cameron Davis.

Baseball: The A’s acquired minorleague infielder Junior Perez from the Padres as the player to be named in the trade of infielder Jorge Mateo to San Diego.

Perez, a 19yearold righthanded hitter from the Dominican Republic, played in the Arizona Rookie League in 2019, hitting .268 with 11 home runs and 39 RBIs in 51 games. He tied for second in the league in homers, ranked second in total bases ( 107) and stole 11 bases in 13 attempts.

The A’s traded Mateo to San Diego on June 30 and he appeared in 22 games for the Padres this season, hitting .154 ( 4for26) with two RBIs. Acquired by Oakland in the 2017 trade of Sonny Gray to the Yankees, Mateo did not appear in a majorleague game for the A’s.

— Matt Kawahara

NHL: The New York Rangers avoided arbitration with center Ryan Strome, agreeing to terms on a $ 9 million, twoyear contract. Strome, 27, set a career high last season with 59 points on 18 goals and 41 assists.