Hid my wife inside cupboard of hotel room during WC: Saqlain
NEW YORK: Reigning champion Lee Jeong-eun of South Korea was among 11 past winners named on Wednesday to the 75th US Women’s Open in exempt categories by the US Golf Association.
Qualifying for the major women’s championship was wiped out by the coronavirus pandemic, which forced the event at Champions Golf Club in Houston, Texas, to be postponed from June 4-7 to Dec. 10-13.
“We are extremely pleased to still provide the world’s best professional and amateur players the opportunity to compete for this historic championship, despite forgoing qualifying,” USGA senior managing director of championships John Bodenhamer said.
Other past US Women’s Open winners in the field will include South Koreans Park In-bee, Ji Eun-hee, Ryu So-yeon, Choi Na-yeon, Chun In-gee and Park Sung-hyun, Americans Michelle Wie, Paula Creamer and Brittany Lang and Thailand’s Ariya Jutanugarn.
The field of 156 will include the top 75 players in the women’s world rankings on March 16, when the list was last updated before the COVID-19 outbreak, and the top 30 finishers on the 2019 LPGA season points list.
Players not yet exempt can earn berths by finishing in the top 10 on the LPGA 2020 season money list or with performances in select remaining 2020 LPGA events, including the Northwest Arkansas Championship, Portland Classic, ShopRite Classic and Women’s PGA Championship.
The top 20 on the women’s world amateur rankings on Nov. 4 will join the usual six amateur qualifying category players in the US Women’s Open lineup also.
The final 2019 Ladies European Tour Order of Merit and 2019 Japan LPGA Tour, Korean LPGA Tour and China LPGA Tour money lists will be used to help round out the field.
Other available spots will be filled from the world rankings on Nov. 9, the day after the LPGA is scheduled to complete an Asian swing through China, South Korea, Taiwan and Japan.
“After carefully examining previous years, these exemption categories allow us to closely mirror a traditional field,” Bodenhamer said. “We are excited to witness one of these players win what will truly be a milestone 75th US Women’s Open.”
Meanwhile, American Chad Campbell is the sixth US PGA Tour player to test positive for COVID-19 as the tour heads into the fourth week of its restart after a three-month shutdown.
NEW DELHI: Pakistan spin great Saqlain Mushtaq said that he had to once hide his wife in the cupboard of his hotel room after a sudden change in the team policy meant that all family members of the players had to be sent home during the 1999 World Cup. Saqlain said that spending time with his wife, who stayed in London, had become an important part of his routine and he was not ready to follow the sudden change in rules.
“Actually I got married in December 1998. My wife used to stay in London so in the 1999 World Cup I stayed with my wife and there was a set pattern -- work hard and train like a true professional with the team during day time and in the evenings I used to spend time with my wife,” Saqlain said in an interview with presenter Raunak Kapoor in the show ‘Beyond The Field’.
“But suddenly they said that our families will be sent back home. So I told our head coach Richard Pybus, that everything is going so smooth then why this sudden change. I am someone who likes to keep the things as they are and don’t feel the need to try out new things for no reason. I decided that I’m not gonna follow this.”
Saqlain said that players’ rooms were checked from time to time and in that time, he asked his wife to go hide in the cupboard.
“The manager, coaches used to come and check our rooms. Some players also used to come for a chat. So one day when I heard a knock on the door, I told my wife to go and hide inside the cupboard. The manager came, had a look and went back. Another official came and went back.
“And all this while my wife was inside the cupboard. Then Azhar ( Mahmood) and ( Mohammad) Yousuf came to have a chat with me about the new rules. They suspected that my wife was in the room. After they insisted I gave in. So I asked my wife to finally come out of the closet,” he said.
Saqlain said that he didn’t face any problems as the final came around shortly after that. Pakistan were completely outclassed in the match by Australia, who won the match by eight wickets.
“I managed to get away with it as after we lost the final to Australia, the atmosphere was very heavy, everyone was down. I went back to my hotel, checked out and told my wife to go to my apartment which was also in London. I used to play county cricket so they had given me an apartment there,” said Saqlain.