TARGET: PARIS MEDAL: Hopes high on Pagdanganan’s Olympic return

Bianca Pagdanganan will gun for nothing less than a medal when she competes in the Paris Olympics starting 7 August at the Le Golf National outside the French capital.

Pagdanganan’s coach, Carito Villaroman, said the 26-year-old ace is already ripe to win a medal in her second straight participation in the biggest and most prestigious sports event in the world.

Billed as the country’s best female golfer following the departure of two-time US Women’s Open champion Yuka Saso, Pagdanganan qualified to the Summer Games after emerging as No. 36 out of the 60 best golfers in the world in the Olympic ranking of the International Golf Federation.

Pagdanganan’s fellow Asian Games gold medalist Saso emerged as 10th but she will be carrying the colors of the country of her father, Japan, while Dottie Ardina also made the cut after landing at No. 56 following the two-year qualifying window.

It’s going to be Pagdanganan’s second straight Olympic participation since finishing 43rd with a total score of 1-over par 285 in the previous Summer Games in Tokyo.

American superstar Nelly Korda emerged as the gold medalist while Mone Inami of Japan and Lydia Ko of New Zealand settled for the silver and bronze medals, respectively.

But Villaroman said a lot of things happened in three years and Pagdanganan now has what it takes to compete against the heavyweights of the sport like world No. 1 Korda, Lilia Vu, Jing Young Ko, and newly-crowned KPMG PGA Championship queen Amy Yang.

“I think she has a very good chance for a podium finish,” said Villaroman, the low-key and soft-spoken coach who was once considered as the best Filipino junior golfer in the country. In fact, he won three junior golf world titles in 1983, 1985, and 1986, which was made memorable by the fact that he crushed Phil Mickelson by 11 shots.

Villaroman’s claim of seeing Pagdanganan stepping on the medal podium has basis.

Pagdanganan has been playing consistently in his past few tournaments in the Ladies Professional Golf Association, thanks to her powerful driving and improved putting. She even came up with a seventh-place finish in the Mizuho Americas Open last May before surviving the cut in the past two events, the Meijer LPGA Classic for Simply Give and KPMG PGA Championship, respectively.

“She has been playing well lately,” said Villaroman, who will go to Paris to personally give pointers to his prized ward. Unlike what he did in Tokyo, however, Villaroman will not serve as her caddie when she arrives in Paris around the first few days of August.

Pagdanganan has yet to play at the Le Golf National, which already hosted the European Cup and the Ryder Cup, but she will get a taste of French brand of competition when she competes in The Amundi Evian Championship that will be held at the Evian Resort Golf Club starting 11 July.

From there, she might return to the United States to compete in other LPGA events before the women’s stroke play of the Summer Games tees off on 7 August.

“Hoping that she will reach her peak during the Olympic week,” Villaroman said.