Bianca Pagdanganan had no way to know that her rookie season on the LPGA Tour was going to start like this. The 22-year-old from the Philippines tied for 38th at the 2019 Q Series as an amateur and opted to turn professional and immediately accept LPGA Tour Membership. But instead of immediately beginning her professional career, Pagdanganan saw her rookie campaign sidelined when the LPGA Tour was forced to suspend the season in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I'm not going to lie. I was a bit nervous coming back into like the competitive mode,” said Pagdanganan, who said she racked up a lot of hours playing Call of Duty during the downtime. “For the most part, that's what I love about golf. But not having that for a couple months, I was pretty nervous.”
Pagdanganan finally made her Membership debut at last week’s LPGA Drive On Championship and didn’t show any signs of nerves in a tie for 28th at the difficult Inverness Club. The Arizona graduate, a member of the 2018 NCAA Championship team along with Haley Moore, now makes her way to the weekend at the Marathon LPGA Classic in a tie for eighth at -6, after a second-round 67 that was highlighted by 10-foot eagle putts at 17 and 18 after starting on No. 9.
“That's so cool. That's also the first time it's ever happened to me, back to back eagle. I was like, Oh, that's pretty rare,” said Pagdanganan. “Of course, I just like had to keep my cool throughout the round. Couldn't just let that take over. I was able to calm myself down and just hold on to that.”
Pagdanganan is the second player this season to record consecutive eagles and it was the 23rd known occurrence in LPGA Tour history. This is Pagdanganan’s second appearance at the Marathon LPGA Classic. She received an exemption into the 2018 tournament after being a member of Arizona’s winning team at the 2017 NCAA National championship, and finished T67.
)
)
){kind=icon}
)
