Amateur Bianca Pagdanganan battled back with two late birdies to save a 72 and improve to joint 18th as she all but clinched an LPGA card next season with one round left in the exacting eight-round LPGA Q-Series in North Carolina Friday.
The Asian Games bronze medalist groped with her irons off the tee a day after shooting the tournament-best bogey-free 64 Thursday that moved her to joint 27th, making double bogeys on two par-3s (Nos. 2 and 9) of Pinehurst No. 9 and dropping a stroke on No. 11. But she fired five birdies in cold conditions, including back-to-back from No. 16 for a 38-34.
With a seven-round total of 498, the country’s SEA Games’ spearhead lay 17 strokes behind leader Muni He of China but stood safely within the Top 45 and ties group that will receive LPGA Status in 2020.
But while former Philippine Ladies Open champion, who topped the LPGA elims Stage I in California and finished No. 8 in Stage II behind a final round 64 in Florida, has all but clinched her card barring a final round disaster, compatriots Clariss Guce and Dottie Ardina’s respective bids suffered a snag with over par cards in the penultimate round.
Guce actually recovered from a four-over round with two birdies in the last seven holes to save a 74 for a 505, the cut-off line after seven rounds and the same output put in by Ardina, who groped for form when it mattered most, hobbling with six bogeys with no birdie to show for a 78.
The duo, along with four others, are tied at 43rd but three players stood just a stroke behind at 506, four more pooled identical 507s, one assembled a 508 and three more totaled 509, making the final 18 holes so crucial for at least 17 bidders.
He, meanwhile, stretched her run of under-par cards to seven, as she made a 71 for a 481, three strokes ahead of Korean Hee Young Park (72-484) and closer to the hotly disputed low medalist honors.
