Pagdanganan, Ardina lead PH to spectacular end in Olympic golf

Bianca Pagdanganan, of the Philippines, acknowledges the gang after placing on the first inexperienced throughout the ultimate spherical of the ladies’s golf occasion on the Paris Olympics 2024, Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024, at Le Golf Nationwide, in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France. (AP Picture/Matt York)

Carrying completely totally different outfits, Bianca Pagdanganan and Dottie Ardina went the precise path collectively on Saturday, giving the Philippines one thing to be tremendous happy with within the suspense theater that was the ultimate spherical of girls’s golf competitors on the Paris Olympics.

With each carving out four-under-par 68s over the tough-as-nails Le Golf Nationwide, Pagdanganan narrowly missed coming into a playoff for the bronze and completed in a thirteenth place tie of an ultra-talented 60-strong discipline made up of a variety of main champions and a handful of former world No. 1s.

A kind of was New Zealand’s Lydia Ko, who opened up a five-shot lead early however wanted to hold robust down the stretch in gutting out a 71 for a 278 and a two-shot win over Germany’s Esther Henseleit, who offered the drama within the closing holes after firing a 66 a number of flights forward.

READ: Bianca Pagdanganan with stable shot at medal after sensible 2nd spherical

China’s Janet Lin additionally fired a 71 and pocketed the bronze medal, ending a shot behind Henseleit.

The ultimate spherical carried numbing stress because the lesser mortals fell by the wayside one after the other, together with joint in a single day chief Morgane Metraux, the Swiss who ballooned to a 79 to complete seven photographs off.

However for the Philippines, the collective performances of Pagdanganan—who was simply 4 photographs off the gold medal complete—and Ardina had been worthy of capping what’s the best-ever effort by a Philippine contingent in 100 years of participation within the quadrennial Summer time Video games, by no means thoughts if a brouhaha on their uniforms had taken over social media site visitors again residence.

READ: ‘Embarrassing’ lack of uniforms for PH Olympic golfers angers followers

Pagdanganan and Ardina each completed birdie-birdie, with the previous even holding the clubhouse lead at 282 after 72 holes, just for Heinseleit to examine in.

Carlos Yulo is undoubtedly the hero for the Philippines within the Paris Olympics after profitable the ground train and vault golds in gymnastics. Boxers Nesthy Petecio and Aira Villegas gained bronzes, however the {golfing} duo will certainly rank excessive up there when tributes are heaped on who carried Philippine satisfaction with conviction in Paris.

FILE–Philippines’ Dottie Ardina competes in spherical 1 of the ladies’s golf particular person stroke play of the Paris Olympics at Le Golf Nationwide in Guyancourt on August 7, 2024. (Picture by Pierre-Philippe MARCOU / AFP)

For his or her efforts got here on the top of a uniform fiasco that had them “taping” the Philippine flag on their chests earlier than every spherical, one thing that has angered netizens again residence.

READ: Dottie Ardina’s second spherical proves she belongs at Paris Olympics

To recap how nice Pagdanganan and Ardina had been, they each completed forward of world No. 1 Nelly Korda of the USA and Canada’s Brooke Henderson, one other main winner.

Pagdanganan’s fourth place end was the best by any Filipino—male of feminine—within the sport.

The ultimate spherical was nothing wanting nerve-wracking, and Ko held her composure the entire time till after sinking a six-footer for birdie on the 72nd gap, the place she let loose all her feelings after finishing the Olympic medal cycle and sealing her place within the Corridor of Fame.

A 20-time winner on the LPGA Tour and two-time main champion, Ko has now gained gold, silver (Rio in 2016) and bronze (Tokyo 2020), doing it in a means that may have rattled a participant of lesser caliber after she doubled the thirteenth to let quite a bit again within the combat.