BY the skin of the teeth, Bianca Pagdanganan retained her US LPGA tour card yesterday after shooting a gritty second straight 69 and finishing in a five-way tie for 20th at the end of The Annika Drivenby Gainbridge at the Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida.
Saddled by bogeys on hole Nos. 3 and 8 after an opening birdie, Pagdanganan settled down going home with birdies on Nos. 12 and 15, both par-three holes, over the par-70, 6,349-yard layout just 177 kilometers northwest of Orlando, home of Disney World.
On top of earning $35,431 (roughly P2.08 million), the Pinay golfer earned 41 precious points to move up nine places to 92nd overall in the Race to CME Globe ratings, well within the top 100 finishers who will keep their tour cards for the 2025 season.
Unlike last year, however, the ICTSI-sponsored Pagdanganan won’t be among the top 80 golfers who will see action in the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship offering a whopping total purse of $11 million (P648.848 million) set from Nov. 21 at the Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida.
With a 275 total, she finished nine shots behind phenomenal American star Nelly Korda, who overcame a shaky start to come charging home with a string of five birdies from the 11th in scoring a 67 for a three-stroke win over China’s Zhang Weiwei and South Korea’s Im Jin-hee.
Korda pocketed the top prize of $487,500 (around P28.6 million) in securing her seventh tour championship of the season, becoming the first player since Taiwanese Yani Tseng who accomplished the feat in 2011 and the first American since Beth Daniel did it in 1990.
The Tokyo Olympic gold medalist likewise will be the No. 1 seed and top favorite in the CME Group Tour Championship that offers a mouth-watering $4 million (P234,920 million) to the winner.
Pagdanganan will likely feel immense relief that she won’t be spending the holiday season qualifying for next year’s tour and enjoy a well-deserved respite with loved ones back home.
