Bianca Pagdanganan and Dottie Ardina placed 35th and 55th among 60 qualified players respectively.
Bianca Pagdanganan (26) and Dottie Ardina (30) are officially qualified for the Paris Olympics. The results came after the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship concluded last Sunday.
Pagdanganan finished tied for 41st place while Ardina didn’t place. Despite this, Ardina still made the cut for this year’s Olympics. In their Instagram stories, the two refer to themselves as Team BombDot com.
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However, no Filipino player qualified for men’s golf. At the moment, 17 athletes will be competing for the Philippine Olympic team.
The women’s golf tournament will take place at Le Golf National in Guyancourt, just outside Paris. As we anticipate the big event, let’s take a look at the two Filipino golfers who will be representing the country.
Bianca Pagdanganan raises the bar
According to Pagdanganan, it was her father who introduced her to golf, as he always played over the weekend.
“One day, I asked to go to the driving range with him and he let me hit a few golf balls, and it took off from there,” she told The Daily Wildcat, her university’s student newspaper.
Born in the Philippines, the athlete pursued her higher education in the United States, first at Gonzaga University. After two years, she transferred to the University of Arizona.
“I really wanted to be able to play outdoors,” Pagdanganan said in 2018, after making the transfer. “It was kind of difficult to do at Gonzaga, and now I’m able to every day.”
At the 2018 Asian Games, Pagdanganan won a gold medal in a team event with Yuka Saso and Lois Kaye as well as a bronze medal in the individual event. The next year, she won gold medals for both individual and team events.
Pagdanganan made her Olympic debut in Tokyo 2020 along with Saso. She finished 43rd place in the Women’s Individual Stroke Play event. This year, she played 12 LPGA events with a best place finish of 7th in the Mizuho Americas Open. She now ranks 113th in the world.
Dottie Ardina takes another shot
Ardina started playing golf when she was only five years old. Like Pagdanganan, she credits her father as the person who influenced her interest and career the most.
She has represented the Philippines in numerous amateur tournaments throughout her early years. In 2006, she competed in the Espirito Santo Trophy (World Amateur Team Championships) at only 12 years old, making her the tournament’s youngest player at the time.
Ardina turned professional in 2013, qualifying for the LPGA Tour on her first attempt. In 2016, she had actually already qualified for the Rio Olympics. However, she was not able to compete due to the Zika virus threat.
This year, she only played in two official LPGA events. She tied for 27th place in the first one and just missed the cut last Sunday. Paris 2024 will be her official Olympic debut.
“Their extensive experience on the LPGA Tour and Epson Tour, along with their impressive track records with national teams, has undoubtedly prepared Bianca and Dottie for this formidable challenge against the world’s best talents in women’s golf,” the NGAP stated.
Banner image via Instagram @biancapagda.
