Bianca Pagdanganan got the better of yet another rollercoaster day to finish with a 2-under 70 for the day for a share of 20th place two rounds into the 2021 LPGA Cambria Portland Classic at the Oregon Golf Club in West Linn, Saturday morning (Manila time).
After a rough end to her day the previous round, the 23-year-old rookie made sure she will be able to save another good start this time around.
Pagdanganan took two birdies in her first holes in her starting foray from the backside, taking gains from Nos. 12 and 14 to get into even par and zoom into the leaderboard.
Another birdie in No. 18 was needed to put her back to even as she needed to drop a shot in the prior hole. Pagdanganan, therefore, went back into the clubhouse back from scratch and with hopes of duplicating her strong start from the other side in the last round.
Instead, the 2019 Southeast Asian Games champion tackled No. 3 this time with an extra hit, and No. 5 also turned out to be a tough customer for the day.
Fortunately, Pagdanganan carved to birdies to negate the mishaps with huge takes on the par-3 No. 4 and par-4 No. 7, thus eventually ending with a 2-under for the day and an even-par 144 overall.
On the other hand, Dottie Ardina had trouble getting gained shots throughout the day and instead registered three bogeys, two of them at the start from the backside.
The veteran Filipino golfer coughed another dropped shot from No. 1, but finally got a birdie from No. 5 to end her day. Ardina thus went 2-over for the day, one better from Thursday’s result and for a total of 5-over 149 — putting her just a shot above the cut.
South Korea’s Ko Jin-young was spectacular during the day as her nearly flawless 5-under 67, which followed up a 3-under 69 the other day, saw her take the solo lead over overnight c0-leader Gemma Dryburgh. The Scottish erstwhile pole holder slipped to solo second with just a stroke behind Ko, and a hit above her fellow co-leader Carlota Ciganda.
The interesting third round of the tournament rolls on Saturday morning (Manila time).
