Bianca salvages 72 in bid to keep card

Bianca Pagdanganan, fighting to secure her LPGA tour card, carded an even-par 72 in the opening round of The Annika Driven by Gainbridge at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida on Thursday.

The 26-year-old two-time Olympian, ranked 101st in the Race to CME Globe, needs a strong performance to break into the Top 100 and retain her full exempt status for next season.

Pagdanganan’s round started with a bogey on the back nine, followed by a birdie at the 14th hole. However, she hit a rough patch with back-to-back bogeys at 15 and 16, turning in 2-over after a bogey-birdie-bogey stretch.

She rallied on the front nine with three birdies in her first five holes, but struggled again with two bogeys against a lone birdie to finish.

Pagdanganan is tied for 50th, among a large group, alongside Fil-Japanese Yuka Saso.

Dottie Ardina was 1-over through 17 holes.

Averaging 273 yards off the tee, Pagdanganan hit 13 of 14 fairways and 12 greens. However, she ended the round with 31 putts.

Meanwhile, South Korea’s Jeon Ji-won made a hole-in-one on the way to a six-under par 64 and a share of the lead with England’s Charley Hull before darkness halted the first round.

Jeon aced the 182-yard par-3 third hole at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Florida.

“I hit it and I saw the one bounce and then it went in the hole,” she said. “It was very cool to see the hole-in-one actually going into the hole.”

It was her fourth hole-in-one. The first came two years ago and the other three this season, one last month, in Shanghai, and the other in August, in Portland, where she shared ninth for her only LPGA top-10 result.

“I didn’t even really trying to make the hole-in-one,” she said of her ace binge. “I just see a target and let the environment do the rest of it.”

She became the first LPGA player since American Danielle Kang in 2014 to make three aces in one season.

South Korean Lee Mi-Hyang and Scot Gemma Dryburgh shared third on 65. Top-ranked Nelly Korda was in a fifth-place pack on 65 when darkness fell with 13 players yet to complete their first round, none of them among the top 20.

Jeon, a back-nine starter, birdied the par-3 12th, par-5 14th and par-4 17th before closing her first nine with a bogey at 18 but responding with a birdie at the first.

After her ace, Jeon answered a bogey at the fifth with birdies at six and the par-5 seventh.

Hull, also a 10th-tee starter, opened with a birdie, added back-to-back birdies at the 14th and par-3 15th and followed a bogey at 17 with birdies at 18 and one before sharing the lead thanks to back-to-back birdies at seven and eight.

World number 12 Hull, who has two LPGA titles, won her fourth Ladies European Tour title — and first in three years — two weeks ago at Riyadh.

“I feel like I’ve been playing very well all year,” Hull said. “Felt very confident and cool when I won. Sometimes you just forget how to win so that has reminded me how to win.”

Korda was back in competition after a neck injury sidelined her last month.

“I definitely felt a little rusty, maybe a little bit nervous on the first couple holes,” Korda said. “It sucks being injured.”

The American was tied on 66 with Norwegian Celine Borge, American Cheyenne Knight, Swede Maja Stark, Australian Minjee Lee and Spaniard Carlota Ciganda.