Two more of the country’s 2018 Asian Games “Golden Girls” are heading to Tokyo next month.
Filipino golfers Yuka Saso and Bianca Pagdanganan formally took their places for Team Pilipinas for the Olympic Games in the said Japanese capital in three weeks’ time as the International Golf Federation released the final Olympic rankings for the women’s side on Tuesday.
The two’s respective places into the quadrennial event were all but formality when either golfer found their success last year, albeit on separate fronts.
Pagdanganan was hailed the strongest driver on the LPGA tour in the United States, where she had her first taste of success after a first-ever top 10 finish in the KPMG PGA Women’s Championship.
However, it was in the following tournament where she bagged her biggest one, a podium finish in third place at the LPGA Drive On Championship (Reynolds Lake Oconee).
Saso, on her part, was ripping off the greens in the LPGA of Japan tour, starting with back-to-back wins in the NEC Karuizawa 72 Golf Tournament and Nitori Ladies Golf Tournament in just her second and third tournaments as a pro golfer, respectively.
Nonetheless, the biggest win for the 19-year-old came when she flew more than 7,000 kilometers to San Francisco, California in the USA in May of this year.
Saso needed a strong finish to put herself in contention for the title in one of the sport’s biggest tournaments — the US Women’s Open —at the aptly-named golf course, the Olympic Club. She then pulled it off to go into a playoff for all the marbles against Japanese Nasa Hataoka.
And then, as what people say, the rest was history. The Filipino-Japanese teen made one after edging out Hataoka in the sudden death.
Saso and Pagdanganan became the 16th and 17th members of Team Pilipinas for the Summer Games. There are also fellow 2018 Asiad champions Hidilyn Diaz of weightlifting and Margie Didal of skateboarding.
The four will now join half-middleweight judoka Kiyomi Watanabe; golfer Juvic Pagunsan; weightlifter Elreen Ando; boxing flyweight Carlo Paalam, middleweight Eumir Marcial, flyweight Irish Magno, featherweight Nesthy Petecio; gymnast Caloy Yulo; pole vaulter EJ Obiena; jin Kurt Barbosa; rower Cris Nievarez; sprinter Kristina Knott; and shooter Jayson Valdez.
