BIANCA Pagdanganan assembled her second solid round in three days yesterday, relying on her putting touch to shoot a 66 and move into a seven-way tie for eighth in the Mizuho Americas Open at the Liberty National Golf Club in New Jersey City.
Tied for second after carding a 68 in the opening round only to follow it up with two-over 74 in the second, Pagdanganan recovered strongly by gunning down eight birdies, including a string from Nos. 13 to 15, against two bogeys on the par-72, 6,656-yard layout overlooking the Statue of Liberty.
Looking for her first win after five years on the US LPGA tour, the 2019 Philippine Southeast Asian Games double gold medalist had a 54-hole tally of 208, five shots behind pacesetting American Nelly Korda, and stayed in the hunt for the top prize of $450,000 (roughly P25.5 million).
Korda, who shot a 68 for a 203 tally, nursed a two-shot lead over Australian Hannah Green, who had the day’s best round of a bogey-free 63, while lurking a shot behind her in a share of third place were Japanese Ayaka Furue and Aussie rookie Gabriela Ruffels, who had 67 and 68, respectively.
“I feel really good. I know I shouldn’t be dwelling on yesterday’s round where I wasted a lot of opportunities. So I said to myself ‘We’re going to put the move on moving day.’ And I am glad we did,” said Pagdanganan of her turnaround following a so-so second round.
“I really guess it was just like the first round where I wanted to take advantage of all the shots that I hit close. I did a pretty good job aside from making the short putts plus a couple (of) long ones,” she said. “And I definitely took advantage of the par-5s, so that helped.”
Asked what she did after her bad round, the power-hitting golfer quipped with a smile: “I try to get a good meal. Tacos and Ice cream afterwards. I guess that helped.”
Seriously speaking, Pagdanganan credited her recovery to maturity in being able to leave everything on the course and not linger too much on what happened there.
“I would definitely say it is part of maturity. I have been five years on the tour. I would take time at the end of the day and reflect on what I could do differently,” she said.
“Unlike last year when I wanted to make golf like everything. I wanted to be passionate but being passionate about it is not making it your whole life,” Pagdanganan recalled of the previous season when she lost her tour card and scrambled to regain it back with a strong finish in 2023.
