Pagdanganan launches make-or-break bid to keep card

MANILA, Philippines – Bianca Pagdanganan sets out for what could be her final attempt to keep her LPGA card for next year, seeking a strong finish in the LPGA Mediheal Championship unfolding Thursday (Friday, Manila time) at the Saticoy Club in Somis, California.

The $1.8 million, 72-hole event serves as the first of the last four legs of this year’s circuit culminating in the CME Group Tour Championship, a $2 million tournament exclusive for the Top 60 players on the Race to CME Globe Points list.

The Top 100, meanwhile, will keep their LPGA cards for 2023.

Pagdanganan has dropped to No. 126 after missing the cut in last week’s The Ascendant LPGA benefiting Volunteers of America, one of a number of abbreviated stints that have marred her campaign this season with her joint 19th effort in the Portland Classic last month being her best finish in 16 tournaments.

She had eight other failed bids despite consistently being among the Top 3 in driving skills in the season about to end.

Pagdanganan has in fact moved to No. 2 in the average driving distance with a 277.314-yard norm —next to Mexico’s Maria Fassi’s 279.841-yard clip with ICTSI teammate Yuka Saso taking the No. 3 spot with 275.181-yard average.

But while the 2021 US Women’s Open champion has virtually secured her spot in the elite CME Group Tour Championship field with a No. 45 ranking, Pagdanganan mounts a make-or-break bid to guarantee an extended stint in the world’s premier ladies circuit.

She is actually in the reserved list for next week’s BMW Ladies Championship in Korea and in the Pelican Women’s Championship set Nov. 10-13 in Florida while the $2 million TOTO Classic in Japan on Nov. 3-6 still has to post the event’s official roster.

That makes the Mediheal Championship so crucial for Pagdanganan, who improved to No. 118 after the Portland Classic but slipped to No. 124 after skipping the NW Arkansas Championship. She currently has 101.147 Globe points with the No. 100 ranked player — Swiss Morgane Metraux — toting 198.237 points.

The winner of each official LPGA event will receive 500 Race to the CME Globe points.

She launches her drive at 7:12 a.m. with Aussie Su Oh and Chinese Yu Liu at the backside of Saticoy with Saso facing Stephianie Kyriacou, also of Australia, and Korean fellow major champion Jeongeun Lee6 of Korea at 7:36 a.m. at the front of the par-72. 6,551-yard layout.

Bannering the cast is defending champion Matilda Castren of Finland, Danielle Kang of the US, Thais Patty Tavatankit and siblings Ariya and Moriya Jutanugarn, French Celine Boutier, Koreans So Yeon Ryu and Sei Young Kim, England’s Georgia Hall and Mexico’s Gaby Lopez.