Bianca Pagdanganan proves she can hang out with the big guns
MANILA, Philippines – She did exceed expectations but more than the lessons learned from her breakthrough joint ninth place finish in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, Bianca Pagdanganan basks in the mere thought of her capability to be swinging with the best and the brightest on the world’s biggest golf stage at this early stage of her pro career.
“I’d say there were more realizations than learnings,” Pagdanganan, 22, told The STAR. “I realize that I’m capable of competing at the highest level with all these great players.”
She does, indeed.
Though she groped and struggled, she still found ways to make the cut in her first four LPGA Tour events, thus earning a slot in the stellar field at her first major championship.
And it took a pair of bogey-free 65s to stake her claim, to be in the mix, to prove that she does belong and can measure up with the best of the rest.
“This being my first major, I knew I was going to be nervous,” said Pagdanganan, whose opening seven-over 77 more than typified her edginess in her debut in an event of major magnitude.
“I didn't perform quite well in the first round but was able to bounce back in the next two, so yes, I'd say I exceeded my own expectations,” she said.
However, the pressure of barging into the Top 5 after 54 holes for a clear shot at a crown — just four strokes off eventual champion Sei Young Kim — and finding herself alongside a slew of Tour multiple winners and major champions probably were too much off a pressure for the rookie campaigner to bear, an opening hole bogey ending her brilliant run of 36 holes without dropping a shot.
But she insisted of not being bothered at all by that early miscue although she yielded three more strokes at the back to drop out of the Top 10 picture.
“I wasn't thinking about it (being pressured) that much. I always try to stay present and take it shot by shot,” said Pagdanganan, who missed the first green and flubbed a six-foot par-saving putt from the bunker.
“I didn't give it enough break,” she said of her putt. “But the course is challenging so I didn't want to beat myself up with all the expectations or pressure to perform well.”
She also admitted to have not played too aggressive that perhaps justified her failed attempts to convert birdie putts from around 20 feet.
“The first bogey, the wind picked up and I went in the bunker and was short sided. The next one (No. 13) I three-putted after my second putt lipped out. The last bogey (No. 15) was just a miss hit off the tee and missed the green in the rough,” she said.
And she was about to miss a Top 10 finish altogether.
But she gathered herself up that further spoke well of her character, holing out with a birdie to save a 73 and a share of joint ninth for another crack at a major crown in the US Women’s Open on Dec. 10-13 at the Champions Golf Course in Houston.
She hopes to get better, stronger in two months time.
“Playing in a major with some of the best players was such a great experience and confidence booster," she said. “I definitely can still work on my iron game,” she said.
That should make her A-ready for the US Open.
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