Lehman shows he’s not finished at 50

Two weeks after turning 50, former Ryder Cup captain Tom Lehman looked like his old self Saturday in the Transitions Championship at Palm Harbor, Fla., with a three-under-par 68 for his first 54-hole lead in more than four years.

Lehman ran off four straight birdies and shot 31 on the back nine to grab a one-shot lead over Retief Goosen. Lehman will try to become only the seventh player in his 50s to win on the PGA Tour.

Lehman, who was at eight-under 205, missed the cut in his first four starts this year before a tie for 49th in Mexico last month.

Taiwan’s Yani Tseng shot a three-under 69 for a share of the second-round lead with South Korea’s Na Yeon Choi in the LPGA Tour’s Mastercard Classic at Huixquilucan, Mexico, leaving top-ranked Mexican star Lorena Ochoa one stroke back after a 73.

PRO FOOTBALL

Owners brace for union battle

NFL owners are gearing up for what could be a pitched battle with the players’ union over a new collective bargaining agreement.

The owners will convene in Dana Point this week for their annual March meetings, the first time in more than a decade the event has been staged in Southern California.

But returning to the nation’s second-largest market is not on the agenda for the owners, whose primary focus is hammering out a profit-sharing agreement that works for them while averting a potential work stoppage when the current CBA expires in 2011.

The meetings, which begin today and run through Wednesday, come a week after the NFL Players Assn. elected attorney DeMaurice Smith as its new executive director.

NFL owners, unhappy with the current 60% of revenue that goes to players, last spring opted out of the final two years of the CBA.

The agreement ends after the 2011 draft, and the possibility of a player lockout is more than an idle threat.

-- Sam Farmer

Authorities have yet to release blood tests for Cleveland Browns wide receiver Donte Stallworth, who authorities say fatally struck a pedestrian in Miami Beach a week ago. Meanwhile, his attorney is denying media reports that the tests show Stallworth was driving drunk. Stallworth hasn’t been charged.

The Detroit Lions are retiring the No. 93 jersey for the upcoming season in memory of defensive lineman Corey Smith, who disappeared when a boat capsized off the Florida coast.

ETC.

Klitschko retains heavyweight title

Vitali Klitschko stopped Juan Carlos Gomez in the ninth round at Stuttgart, Germany, easily retaining his WBC heavyweight title. It was the 36th knockout for Klitschko (37-2).

Roy Jones Jr. knocked out lightly regarded Omar Sheika to capture the North American Boxing Assn.’s vacant light heavyweight championship at Pensacola, Fla.

Kevin Harvick won the Nationwide Series race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway in his own race car.

Harvick led 44 laps in his Kevin Harvick Inc.-owned Chevrolet, his first victory in a car fielded by the race team he built with his wife.

Six-time superbike champion Mat Mladin won the first of two weekend races in the Suzuki AMA Pro Superbike Challenge at Auto Club Speedway, his seventh win at the Fontana track. Mladin narrowly held off second-place Tommy Hayden, Mladin’s Suzuki teammate.

-- Jim Peltz

Chad Reed raced to his third Monster Energy AMA Supercross victory of the year, beating James Stewart in front of 55,815 fans at St. Louis.

Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello drove an Audi to victory in the 12 Hours of Sebring in Florida.

Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes were ejected as Manchester United lost at Fulham for the first time since September 1964, a 2-0 defeat that tightened the Premier League race.

United has lost consecutive matches for the first time in four years.

Liverpool (17-2-10) would close to within one point of league-leading Manchester United (20-4-5) if it beats fifth-place Aston Villa (15-7-7) today.

Olympic gold medalist Shaun White pulled out of the U.S. Snowboarding Championships at Stratton Mountain, Vt., because of a sprained left ankle, ending his attempt for a fourth straight halfpipe title. Danny Kass and Torrah Bright won the halfpipe titles.

Olympic gold medalist Rebecca Soni of USC became the first woman to win the NCAA 200 breaststroke in four consecutive years at the swimming and diving championships at College Station, Texas. California won its first team title, and USC was ninth.