SEAG champ rarin’ to make a run at Olympics

MANILA, Philippines — A bit upset over her failure to launch her LPGA Tour rookie campaign the way she had planned it, Bianca Pagdanganan believes the setback due to the world health crisis only gave her more time to steel herself up for a bigger mission on a bigger stage.

Olympics.

“It sucks that it (LPGA Tour) got pushed back. I know a lot of people were looking forward to it,” said Pagdanganan, who earned her LPGA card by finishing tied for 38th in the grueling eight-round Q-Series late last year. But the coronavirus pandemic held back all events in the sporting world, frustrating the US-based shotmaker no end.

But she thinks there is a silver lining to the pandemic, saying the long break from competition enables her to make a run for a dream stint in the Tokyo Olympics, also pushed back to 2021 by the health crisis.

“I guess I have more time to actually prepare for it and give myself a better chance of getting in (to the Olympics),” said the US-based Pagdanganan in a recent Golfweek interview.

She hardly gave much thought of representing the Philippines in the 2016 Rio Games but after powering the country to a sweep of the SEA Games gold medals last December, she felt she’s more than ready to take a crack at an Olympic berth, particularly now that the qualifiers have also been reset, giving those outside of the current Top 60 ranking a fair shot at one of the coveted slots.