Woods’ win produces big ratings for NBC

Tiger Woods’ victory at Bay Hill produced the highest overnight television rating since the U.S. Open.

Woods made up a five-shot deficit Sunday and won the Arnold Palmer Invitational with a birdie on the last hole.

NBC Sports says the final round drew a 4.9 overnight rating with a 10 share. According to Nielsen Media Research, that’s the highest rating of any golf tournament since the U.S. Open in June. Woods won that tournament in a playoff.

The Bay Hill rating was up 23% from last year and attracted more viewers than the British Open and PGA Championship last year when Woods did not play because of knee surgery.

JURISPRUDENCE

Former Nevada player arrested

Former Nevada basketball star Kirk Snyder has been jailed in Ohio on charges of aggravated burglary and felonious assault, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

Warren County sheriff’s deputies said they arrested the former NBA player Monday morning at his home in Deerfield Township northeast of Canton.

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Jail records in Sarasota, Fla., show Cincinnati Reds minor league pitching coach Tom Browning has been charged with nonpayment of child support. The former Reds star, who threw a perfect game in 1988, was arrested Friday and was being held on $99,008.36 bail. . . . Plaxico Burress will return to court today in his gun possession case as his lawyers and prosecutors haggle over a plea deal and what punishment the New York Giants receiver should face for accidentally shooting himself in a crowded nightclub last year.

TENNIS

Williams sisters have close calls

Top-ranked Serena Williams twice lost five games in a row but finished with a flourish and defied the tournament’s upset trend by beating No. 17-seeded Zheng Jie, 7-5, 5-7, 6-3, in the fourth round of the Sony Ericsson Open at Key Biscayne, Fla.

Also reaching the final eight was No. 5-seeded Venus Williams, who staged her own narrow escape to beat Agnieszka Radwanska, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4. The Williams sisters could renew their sibling rivalry in the semifinals Thursday.

On the men’s side, top-ranked Rafael Nadal reached the fourth round by beating qualifier Frederico Gil, 7-5, 6-3. Fourth-seeded Andy Murray defeated Nicolas Massu, 6-4, 6-4.

PRO FOOTBALL

Moats accepts officer’s apology

NFL player Ryan Moats said he accepted the apology offered by a Dallas police officer who stopped him with a drawn gun in a hospital parking lot as his mother-in-law was dying.

The Houston Texans running back said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that he hopes officer Robert Powell was sincere in his apology.

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Former USC quarterback Carson Palmer says he considers his throwing elbow fully healed as he begins off-season workouts this week with Cincinnati Bengals teammates. . . . Former Pittsburgh Steelers offensive tackle Marvel Smith has signed a two-year deal with the San Francisco 49ers, who expect him to be their starting right tackle. . . . The Texans have signed free-agent defensive tackle and former USC player Shaun Cody, who spent the first four years of his career with the Detroit Lions.

ETC.

De La Hoya to reveal his plans

Oscar De La Hoya has scheduled an April 14 news conference at the Star Plaza downtown, where he will make an announcement about his future in boxing, his business partner Richard Schaefer told The Times.

Schaefer declined to reveal what De La Hoya has decided, although the boxer was soundly beaten by Manny Pacquiao in a Dec. 6 fight and confided to former trainer Freddie Roach that his best days were over.

-- Lance Pugmire

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Kevin Harvick passed Kyle Busch with just over nine laps to go and held on through an abbreviated final restart to win the rain-delayed and caution-filled NASCAR trucks race in front of a sparse crowd at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway. . . . Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger joined the board of U.S. organizers bidding to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022. . . . Fox Soccer Channel beat out ESPN for the rights to the European Champions League starting next season. . . . Nebraska football Coach Bo Pelini signed a contract extension through the 2013 season, boosting his annual salary to $1.85 million. . . . IEAH Stables, owner of 2008 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown, purchased a 50% interest in Triple Crown hopeful I Want Revenge.