WHEN it comes to the Olympics, many Filipinos have made their country proud.
In total, the Philippines has won 14 Olympic medals, one of which was Hidilyn Diaz, the first Filipino to win a gold medal in the 2020 Olympics.
The country is hoping to take more medals home as, for this year’s Olympics, 22 of its athletes will be going for the gold in their respective categories.
Among these qualifiers is 26-year-old Bianca Pagdanganan, who will be competing in the Olympics for the second time after her participation in the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
Many people have praised Pagdanganan’s career achievements. Aside from making it to the Olympics, she has also won her fair share of competitions and has been honing her golfing skills at a young age.
What, then, needs to be known about this renowned golfer? In terms of the upcoming Olympic games, how big is her chance of bringing home the gold?
Starting young
Pagdanganan was born and raised in the Philippines, graduating from Assumption College Antipolo. When she moved to the United States, she started to attend Gonzaga University, playing on her school’s golf team.
Her love for the sport started because, when she was younger, her father would often bring her along when he went golfing on the weekends.
In high school, as per the official website of the Arizona Wildcats, Pagdanganan won second place at the 2012 PHILEX Northern Luzon Regional Amateur Golf Championship, as well as the 2013 Philippine Amateur Open.
The golfer would then win in the amateur division of the 2013 Philippine Ladies Open.
Pagdanganan also won in the 2014 Philippine Junior Amateur Open and was a low medalist in the Philippine Amateur Open’s stroke play portion.
She would then do the same at the University of Arizona’s team, the Arizona Wildcats. During her time in school, she was called The Unicorn thanks to her skills. In 2018, she and her team won the 2018 NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Championships.
In the 2018 Asian Games, Pagdanganan would also go on to win a bronze medal in the women’s individual golf event, and a gold in the team event.
According to the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA), Pagdanganan earned medalist honors at the LPGA Qualifying Tournament in 2019. In the same year, she finished T38 at the LPGA Q-Series to earn status for the LPGA Tour season for the coming year.
Only a year later, she got two top 10 finishes, placing third during the LPGA Drive on Championship.
In 2021, she finished T10 at the LPGA Q-Series for LPGA Tour membership for the 2022 season and also participated in the 2020 Olympics for the first time, where she finished T43.
Though she did not win any medal in the 2020 Olympics, she made a comeback with three top-10 finishes and a season-best runner-up result during the Ascendant LPGA Benefiting the VOA.
For this year’s Olympics, the Daily Tribune reported that Pagdanganan was 35th on the 60-woman list of the International Golf Federation, thanks to her performance in several LPGA events.
Currently, according to Spin PH, Pagdanganan is 118th in the world and 92nd in the LPGA, with one top-10 finish and four missed cuts throughout the 13 tournaments she played in this season.
Her Olympic journey
It was in 2020, during her collegiate career, that Pagdanganan was scouted.
Despite only being a professional golfer for a few years, Pagdanganan has continued to make a name for herself in the world of sports. She is expected to continue to do just that moving forward, especially with the Olympics coming up.
Her coach Carito Villaroman feels that she has a very good chance of a podium finish. He also hopes that she will reach her peak during the week of the Olympics.
Pagdanganan has also said that getting into the Olympics has been her goal ever since she started playing golf and that she is thankful for the support she has received. She also expressed her excitement to represent her country on what she believes to be the world’s biggest stage.
In her past Olympic performance, Pagdanganan focused on ball control to gain more consistency in her plays. However, it remains to be seen if she will continue that same strategy for this year.
