Bianca impresses, falters in Pelican tilt

MANILA, Philippines – Bianca Pagdanganan stirred up play with a superb backside start but faltered in a windy finish to end up with a three-over 73 and fall behind by nine off a hot-starting Sophia Popov of Germany after 18 holes of the Pelican Women’s Championship in Belleair, Florida Thursday.

The LPGA Tour driving leader rebounded strong from a bogey on No. 12 with birdies in the next three holes, perhaps impressing her revered flightmates — world No. 2 Sei Young Kim and eight-time LPGA Tour winner Brittany Lincicome of the US.

In fact, she surged ahead with Kim and a couple of others with a two-under card in that early stretch of the $2 million championship and stayed in the Top 15 despite dropping another stroke on No. 16.

But things turned for the worse at the turn as the ICTSI-backed ace bogeyed three of the first four holes and yielded two strokes on the par-4 No. 6 before birdying the par-5 seventh.

With a 39-34 card at the par-70 Pelican Golf Club layout, Pagdanganan fell to joint 63rd, the projected cutoff score for the 107-player starting field that includes world No. 1 Jin Young Ko and the rest of the world’s best priming up for the US Women’s Open in Houston in three weeks time.

Pagdanganan, who with Japan-based Yuka Saso will see action in the world's ladies premier event set December 8-11, slowed down with her driving and normed 265 yards from her Tour-leading 288-yard average. She missed just two fairways but failed to reach regulation six times and finished with 32 putts.

The rookie pro hopes to recover big in the second round in an attempt to make it to the weekend play and extend her run of consecutive cuts made to seven tournaments.

Meanwhile, Popov upstaged the stellar cast with a six-under 64, spiking her surge with five-straight birdies from No. 5. She made two bogeys but added three more birdies to lead South African Ashleigh Buhai, who shot a 66, by two.

Kim stayed within striking distance with a 67 in a tie with American Ally McDonald while Ko wavered in her first tournament in the pandemic-hit season with a 72 for joint 46th.