BRIEFLY : LEHMAN COASTS TO SIX-STROKE WIN.

Three years ago Tom Lehman was an unknown refugee from just about every small tour in the world and had never won a PGA event. With his runaway win at the Tour Championship on Monday, Lehman staked his claim to Player of the Year honors.

Lehman finished a dominating performance at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla., and a sensational year with a 71 in the rain-delayed final round for a 12-under-par 268, six strokes ahead of Brad Faxon and seven better than Steve Stricker.

The victory gave Lehman the money title, the best scoring average and the PGA of America Player of the Year award.

``It turned out to be a dream year,'' Lehman said. ``I really didn't think about winning the money title until this week. I played great and everything just fell together.''

Lehman is now a strong contender for the PGA Tour Player of the Year award, which is determined in a vote by players.

FOOTBALL

A man accused of trying to set up a $1-million drug deal for former NFL defensive back Darryl Henley pleaded guilty in Los Angeles to a narcotics charge. Jimmy Washington, 49, faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute narcotics. He will be sentenced Jan. 27.

Funeral services were held in Oklahoma City for Joe Spencer, an assistant coach for five NFL teams, including the New York Jets when they won the Super Bowl in 1970. He was 73. Spencer, who had cancer, died Thursday in Houston.

The St. Louis Rams didn't clean house one day after an overtime loss to Baltimore, though they did repair their image. The team released backup defensive end Alberto White, who went on a profane tirade against the media in the locker room after the game.

BASKETBALL

The Portland Trail Blazers have suspended Isaiah Rider for their season opener Friday night for failing to show up for the team's final exhibition game on Sunday. Rider missed the team bus to Corvallis, Ore., where the Blazers played Seattle. He later told team officials that a cab had taken him to the wrong hotel.

TENNIS

Elena Likhotseva beat Zina Garrison-Jackson 6-4, 6-4 in the opening round of the Ameritech Cup in Chicago.

Russia's rising star, 15-year-old Anna Kurnikova, beat Germany's Yelena Wagner 6-0, 6-4 in the first round of the $400,000 Kremlin Cup women's tournament in Moscow.

Stefan Edberg, playing in his next to last pro tournament, beat an angry, sarcastic Michael Stich 6-2, 6-4 in the first round of the Paris Open. Stich, like Edberg a former Wimbledon champion, had little patience for the officiating.

OLYMPICS

An agreement was announced that should help keep the United States as the richest Olympic power. A top official of the International Olympic Committee said the U.S. Olympic Committee would start receiving a bigger cut of American television rights revenues (12.75 percent of the international committee's TV revenues, up from 10 percent of the past decade) and would have complete control of the lucrative use of the Olympic rings in ads and other promotions in the United States.

USOC officials said the new deal could add as much as $100 million to the organization's bankbook by 2008.

BOXING

Heavyweight Tommy Morrison received a six-month suspended sentence in Jay, Okla., and $100 fine after pleading guilty to transporting a loaded firearm.

Mark Lewis suprised top-ranked WBO junior welterwieght contender Carlos Gonzalez of Mexico on a fifth-round split technical decision at the Forum.

The scheduled 10-round bout was stopped at 1:58 of the fifth when the fighters heads unintentionally collided.