Pagdanganan finishes third with 70

Filipino rookie Bianca Pagdanganan birdied the final two holes, but the effort came a bit late as the title was already in American Ally McDonald’s bag at the LPGA Drive On Championship on Sunday at Reynolds Lake Oconee in Greensboro, Georgia. .

The 22-year-old Pagdanganan won a final round with two under 70s, a ghost-free round in which he never made a solid case for that big win.

However, the young sensation has already left good impressions with how she fought a four-day battle against the biggest and brightest stars in women’s golf.

Pagdanganan put together an inspiring 68-67-69-70 for 274 in the $ 1.3 million event.

That gave him a career-best third place behind first-time champion McDonald, the 26-year-old who shot a final round of 69 for a 272, and a one-shot victory over fellow American and multi-title Danielle Kang. whose 68 was not enough as he finished with a 273.

That third-place Pagdanganan earned him a paycheck of $ 83,557, or roughly P4.17 million, and improved his career earnings to $ 186,266 since turning pro earlier this year.

Two weeks ago, she ranked ninth in the KPMG PGA Women’s Championship in Pennsylvania, a feat that earned her a spot at the US Women’s Open in Champions in Houston in December.

Pagdanganan, a gold medal winner during the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia and a double gold medalist at the Southeast Asian Games here a year ago, started the final round just one shot behind McDonald.

However, the American increased her lead to two shots with a birdie at 4, which moved her to 14 under par for the tournament, while both Pagdanganan and Kang, who birdie-bogey-birdie at 2, 5 and 6, were at 12- below.

McDonald’s three consecutive birdies to start the final nine allowed him to go to 17 under, and although he bogeyed at 13, he recovered with a birdie at 16 that gave him a three-shot lead over Kang, while Pagdanganan was already five shots back.

Mina Harigae of the USA and Carlota Ciganda of Spain finished tied for fourth and fifth with 275, while in sixth place are former World No. 1 and two-time Major League winner Ariya Jutanugarn of Thailand and Australian Katherine Kirk with 277.

Lydia Ko of New Zealand, with multiple titles, finished tied for eighth to tenth with Finnish Matilda Castren and American Brittany Altomare with 278