By KRISTEL SATUMBAGA
Bianca Pagdanganan turned in her best round in four days – an even-par 72 – to finish tied for 52nd in the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in Frisco, Texas on Sunday, June 22 (early Monday, June 23, Philippine time).
Like in the first three rounds, the two-time Olympian struggled on the backnine but managed to steady herself to finish with a four-round total of 301, 17 strokes behind eventual champion Minjee Lee of Australia.
Pagdanganan had rounds of 74, 77 and 78 on a course so demanding and tricky. But with her valiant effort, she was rewarded $33,648 prize (around P1.9 million)
Pagdanganan opened the final round with a birdie on No. 3 before bogeying the par-4 fifth hole. She briefly picked up her game with another birdie on the seventh, but tumbled with a double bogey on the par-3 eighth hole.
She held par in the succeeding holes before birdying the 15th, enough to beat two-time US Women’s Open champion and former teammate Fil-Japanese Yuka Saso.
A former Asian Games champion, Saso closed out with a 76that consisted of four birdies, four bogeys and two double bogeys.
Lee, who pocketed the $1.8 million top purse that went along with the crown, actually tumbled with a last-round 74, but it was enough to give her a three-shot victory over closest pursuers Chanettee Wannasaen and Auston Kim, who fired similar 68s.
