Rose beats Woods to reach final

Justin Rose beat Tiger Woods by a stroke Thursday to set up a title match with Lee Westwood in the World Golf Final in Belek, Turkey.

The two Englishmen, who played on the victorious European Ryder Cup team, will meet Saturday, with the winner getting $1.5 million and the runner-up $1 million in the eight-player exhibition.

Rose, who holed a sand wedge shot for an eagle at the 14th, finished with a two-under 69 while Woods was at 70.

Earlier Thursday, Woods eliminated Rory McIlroy from the competition, beating him by six strokes in their first head-to-head match to advance to the semifinals.

Westwood shot a course-record 61 in the semifinals to beat 2011 Masters champion Charl Schwartzel of South Africa by six shots.

Australia’s Nick O’Hern shot a nine-under 62 to take a three-stroke lead over European Ryder Cup player Nicolas Colsaerts, Jhonattan Vegas and Derek Ernst in the Frys.com Open at San Martin, Calif.

O’Hern had eight birdies in an 11-hole stretch and capped the bogey-free round with a birdie on the par-five ninth hole at CordeValle Golf Club. He’s winless on the PGA Tour.

Ross Fisher of England and Stephen Gallacher of Scotland each shot a six-under 65 to share the lead at the Portugal Masters at Vilamoura after the opening round.

Defending champion Na Yeon Choi shot a six-under 65 in the LPGA Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur for a share of the lead with Hall of Famer Karrie Webb.

ETC.

John Wooden statue at UCLA

UCLA will unveil a statue of the late basketball coach John Wooden outside newly renovated Pauley Pavilion on Oct. 26.

The bronze statue was paid for by a donation from athletic boosters and was created by Blair Buswell, who has sculpted many busts of Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees.

Negotiators for the NHL and the players’ association met in New York on Thursday but said they had not addressed core economic issues and had not set up additional talks aimed at ending the league-imposed lockout.

The NHL season was scheduled to begin on Thursday but the league has canceled the first 82 games, through Oct. 24.

Unable to progress on issues such as players’ share of hockey-related revenues and league-wide revenue sharing, the two sides again tackled matters such as drug testing, grievance procedures and healthcare. But that didn’t result in enough consensus to take on their key differences.

Without a quick resolution it will soon become impossible to play a full 82-game schedule.

Meantime, FS West and Prime Ticket announced plans to televise classic Kings and Ducks games from their respective championship runs in place of games canceled through Oct. 24. Two Ducks games will be aired Tuesday and Oct. 23, and Kings games will aired Wednesday and Oct. 24.

Kings backup goaltender Jonathan Bernier signed to play for Heilbronn Falken of the German second division during the NHL lockout, the team announced. He is the third Kings player to find a spot in Europe during the lockout, following center Anze Kopitar (Mora IK in Sweden) and defenseman Alec Martinez (TPS Turku in Finland).

-- Helene Elliott

Tamika Catchings scored 22 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to lead the visiting Indiana Fever into the WNBA Finals for the second time in four seasons with an 87-71 win over the Connecticut Sun.

Indiana will play at defending WNBA champion Minnesota, which swept the Sparks in the Western Conference, in Game 1 of the finals on Sunday.

Greg Biffle won the pole for Saturday night’s race at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway, the first NASCAR Cup race without an Earnhardt in 33 years. Dale Earnhardt Jr. has a concussion and will sit out two races.

AJ Allmendinger qualified 38th in his first race since being suspended July 7 for failing a random drug test.

With another win at the Shanghai Masters, Roger Federer guaranteed himself the No. 1 ranking for the 300th week of his career.

The top-ranked Federer beat Davis Cup teammate Stanislas Wawrinka, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-0, in the third round. Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray also reached the quarterfinals.