Lowery, Cejka (65) Share Lead at Scottsdale

Steve Lowery shot a six-under-par 65 in the morning and Alex Cejka matched it at nightfall to share the first-round lead at the FBR Open on Thursday in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Lowery, winner of two PGA Tour events but none since 2000, ran off a string of birdies on the 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th holes on a par-71, 7,216-yard Tournament Players Championship course hardened by a record 106 days without rain.

Cejka, who was born in the Czech Republic but left with his family at age 9 and became a German citizen, had six birdies without a bogey. Then, as darkness fell, he saved par on the 18th with a shot out of the sand that landed two feet from the pin.

“We were running to the tee box on the 18th to hit it because we didn’t know when they were going to blow the horn,” said Cejka, who played in the third-to-last group.

Brent Geiberger, James Driscoll, Jerry Smith and Bo Van Pelt were one behind at five-under 66.

Four golfers were to finish their rounds this morning because of darkness.

Retief Goosen shot an eight-under 64 to move into a three-way tie for the lead after the first round of the Dubai Desert Classic, with Tiger Woods three strokes behind, in United Arab Emirates.

Woods was four under after four holes but slowed and was among six players at five-under 67.

Goosen was tied for the lead with Richard Green and Jamie Donaldson; Jamie Lynn and Ross Bain were next at six under. Defending champion and three-time winner Ernie Els shot 68.

FOOTBALL

Martz Won’t be Lions’

Offensive Coordinator

Mike Martz backed out of the Detroit Lions’ offensive coordinator position, and the former St. Louis Ram coach appears content to sit out next season.

“Obviously, I took the job,” Martz said in a telephone interview with the Associated Press. “It just didn’t work out with the money. There’s a bottom-line figure my agent has and I didn’t want to have the details, so we just move on.”

Martz’s agent, Bob LaMonte, did not immediately return a telephone message.

The Houston Texans added four coaches to new Coach Gary Kubiak’s staff.

Richard Smith was named defensive coordinator, Brian Pariani tight ends coach, Mike McDaniel offensive quality control coach and Robert Saleh defensive quality control coach.

Smith was Miami’s defensive coordinator last season. The Dolphins ranked 18th in the NFL in total defense last season and finished the season with 49 sacks, second in the league.

Pariani, who spent 15 seasons coaching in the NFL, returns to the NFL after a year as offensive coordinator at Syracuse.

McDaniel was an offensive coaching intern for Denver last season. Saleh was an intern with the Texans last season, working closely with the defense.

NFL Players Assn. executive director Gene Upshaw said the union is prepared to take the league to court if there is no progress on an extension of the existing collective-bargaining agreement.

Upshaw said the union is prepared to disband, then go to an antitrust court to ask for a new set of rules under which the NFL would operate. He did not specify what other legal action might be taken.

Upshaw targeted March 9 as the date he will begin consulting players on forcing a legal resolution of the situation.

MISCELLANY

Adu Is Cut From U.S.

National Team Camp

Freddy Adu was released from the U.S. national team training camp in Carson and will join D.C. United when it starts preseason training next week.

The 16-year-old forward made his national debut as a late substitution in a scoreless tie against Canada on Jan. 22, then didn’t play in Sunday’s 5-0 win over Norway.

Midfielder Steve Ralston, who has a strained right quadriceps, also was dropped from the training camp roster.

Cheryl Miller admitted to being “a little sentimental” about her 24-year-old record for points in a girls’ high school basketball game being eclipsed Wednesday by Epiphanny Prince of New York’s Murry Bergtraum.

Mostly though, Miller, now an NBA sideline reporter for TNT, said she was happy for Prince and urged her not to be daunted by contentions that her 113-point binge in a lopsided victory was not sportsmanlike.

“That’s what the game is all about,” Miller told Newsday by phone from Miami, where she covered Thursday’s Cleveland Cavalier-Miami Heat game. “There are special moments and special situations.”

Miller, 42, recalled that the negative press was “pretty intense” after she scored 105 points for Riverside Poly in a 179-15 rout of Norte Vista, which Thursday she called “a terrible team.”

Jacksonville Jaguar receiver Reggie Williams will perform community service to settle charges filed after police found a small amount of marijuana in his car last month, authorities said.

Williams was offered a program that allows first-time offenders on a minor charge to get community service and avoid having a record, Chief Assistant State Atty. Jay Plotkin said.

PASSING

Olympic Goaltender Rupp Dies at Age 63

Pat Rupp, a goaltender for the 1964 and 1968 U.S. Olympic teams who also played one NHL game for the Detroit Red Wings, died after a long battle with cancer. He was 63.