DREAM OF PODIUM FINISH: Pinays eye glory under Korda’s long shadow

If there’s any doubt about the Filipino golfers’ fighting heart, Bianca Pagdanganan erased it completely.

Just hours before tee-off at Le Golf National for the opening round of the Olympic women’s golf, the 26-year-old Filipina said they are still dreaming of a podium finish.

That despite a powerful field that included reigning champion and World No. 1 Nelly Korda of the United States.

Pagdanganan and Dottie Ardina plunged into action late Wednesday in Manila.

Ardina, 30, said she’s thrilled that she can finally be called an “Olympian,” having skipped Rio edition in 2016 over Zika virus scare despite qualifying.

The Filipinos have yet to win a medal in Olympic golf which only came back in the calendar in 2016. Pagdanganan finished 43rd in Tokyo in 2021.

Korda was to start her attempt to be the first double Olympic golf champion but will need to arrest a recent drop in form.

The American became the first LPGA Tour player to win six titles in a single season since 2013 in the space of just seven tournaments earlier this year, but then suffered three successive cuts.

“The game of golf is a funny game,” Korda told reporters ahead of the first round.

“Sometimes you feel on top of the world and in a matter of a couple seconds, you just feel like you’re on the bottom of the sea.”

Japan’s US Open champion Yuka Saso, two-time Olympic medallist Lydia Ko and home hope Celine Boutier are also among the medal favorites at Le Golf National.

Just like the men’s competitions last week, the women’s action will be held at the Le Golf National, one of Europe’s top golf courses.

It is located in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, 41 kilometers from the Olympic Village and is owned and managed by the French Golf Federation.

The venue was conceived as a permanent home for the annual French Open tournament and as a national training facility. Le Golf National opened in 1991 and was fully renovated in 2016. In 2018, it hosted the Ryder Cup.