Rory McIlroy’s patience was tested Thursday on his comeback from an injury-filled and winless 2017, needing three late birdies to register a 3-under-par 69 that left him three strokes behind first-round leaders Tommy Fleetwood and Hideto Tanihara at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

Fleetwood, the defending Abu Dhabi champion and last year’s European Tour money-list winner, continued his excellent form by hitting all 18 greens in regulation. Top-ranked Dustin Johnson drove his ball into a lake at the ninth, his closing hole, to finish with a 72. Matt Kuchar was also at even-par. Justin Rose went one better with a 71.

•Sergio Garcia opened his season with a 5-under 66 and a share of the clubhouse lead with American qualifier Kurt Kitayama in the first round of the weather-interrupted Singapore Open.

Baseball: The players’ association reportedly has rejected Major League Baseball’s proposal to institute 20-second pitch clocks and limits on mound visits, a move that dares management to unilaterally impose the changes designed to speed pace of games.

MLB will not make any decision before its next owners’ meetings, scheduled for Jan. 30 to Feb. 1 in Beverly Hills.

NFL: Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin hired Randy Fichtner, an assistant with Pittsburgh since 2007, as offensive coordinator to replace Todd Haley, who was not retained following Pittsburgh’s divisional-round loss to Jacksonville on Sunday.

• Atlanta head coach Dan Quinn announced that offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian will return in 2018.

College football: Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield has been named the 2017 Manning Award winner as the nation’s best quarterback after a season in which he passed for 4,627 yards and 43 touchdowns.

Soccer: Mexico will play Iceland in an international friendly on March 23 at Levi’s Stadium, a game pitting top-20 world-ranked teams preparing for the World Cup in Russia this summer.

Mexico — No. 17 in the latest FIFA rankings — and Iceland (No. 20) have met three times, with Mexico winning once and the other two ending in scoreless draws.

The kickoff is tentatively scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tickets are available through ticketmaster.com.

•Real Madrid defeated host Leganes 1-0 with an 89th-minute goal by Marco Asensio in the first leg of the Copa del Rey quarterfinals to end a three-match winless streak. The second leg is next week at Madrid.