JUST LIKE PARIS: As Olympic champ Ko threatens, Pagdanganan counts on last-round savvy

Widely known for her long drives, Bianca Pagdanganan will now have to rely on her final-round grit as she attempts to score breakthrough victory in the LPGA on Sunday (early Monday morning in Manila).

The 26-year-old Philippine pride is just five shots off the leader entering the last 18 holes of the Kroger Queen City Championship at the TPC River’s Bend in Maineville, Ohio.

And with the way she’s playing all week, everything is possible.

Pagdanganan shot a 69 on Saturday to crowd sixth place and help form an anticipated mad rush to the title.

Thailand’s Atthaya “Jeeno” Thitikul shook off two late bogeys to close with a birdie and push her lead over Hall of Famer Lydia Ko to two strokes in the $2-million tournament.

Jeeno, like New Zealand’s Ko a former World No. 1, had stretched her one-stroke overnight lead to four when she rolled in a long putt from the fringe for her fifth birdie of the day at the 15th.

Back-to-back bogeys at 16 and 17 saw the lead shrink but she closed with a two-putt birdie at the par-five 18th for a four-under par 68 and a 54-hole total of 16-under 200.

Ko, playing her first tournament since winning Olympic gold in Paris then lifting the trophy at the Women’s British Open last month, shook off an opening bogey to grab four birdies in a three-under 69 for 202.

But they can’t count out Pagdanganan, the Olympic fourth-placer who is looking to finally nail a title that has eluded her since joining the tour in 2021.

The closest she got to it was last year when she finished runner-up in the Ascendants catapulting her Paris qualification and ensuring her the LPGA card.

Pagdanganan leaned on her strength, averaging 324 yards on her drives, and finding the fairways 10 of 14 times. She hit 13 greens in regulation and putted 30 times during the third round.

She birdied Nos. 8, 10, 16 and 18, while bogeying No. 17 for an 11-under total of 205. Pagdanganan’s best showing this year was T7 at Mizuho Americas Open.

Ko was one stroke in front of China’s Liu Yan, who had a double bogey and a bogey on the front nine but notched an eagle and three birdies coming in for a 68 on the Arnold Palmer-designed TPC River’s Bend near Cincinnati, which is hosting the tournament for the first time.