Bianca Pagdanganan with solid shot at medal after brilliant 2nd round

Bianca Pagdanganan, of the Philippines, hits her shot from the 3rd tee during the second round of the women’s golf event at the Paris Olympics 2024, Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024, at Le Golf National, in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Bianca Pagdanganan is having a tournament to remember in Paris.

And after things went the way they did as far as the leaderboard was concerned in the second round of the women’s individual golf competition on Thursday, the long-hitting Filipino has a chance to make her stint as one this country will never forget.

From saying that the Olympics is “just more of me representing the Philippines. It’s something bigger than yourself,” Pagdanganan wheeled into serious medal contention after carving out a three-under-par 69 that placed her in joint seventh spot heading into Friday’s third round.

“I compete in the LPGA but I just feel like it was just me,” Pagdanganan told One Sports after three back nine birdies on Thursday left her just five shots off the lead held by Morgane Metraux of Switzerland. “For the Olympics, it feels like you are chosen to represent and I feel like it’s a bigger responsibility.”

That responsibility will be coupled with a country that will be wishing her well when she tees off in the second-to-last flight in the company of Mariajo Uribe of Colombia and Pia Babnik of Slovenia, for Pagdanganan, after all, now has a realistic chance of bagging a medal at Le Golf National.

Pagdanganan and a lot of the other bets got a lot of help from some of the stars of the 72-hole event like world No. 1 Nelly Korda of the United States and Frenchwoman Celine Boutier.

Boutier started the day holding a formidable lead only to drop five shots in a three-hole stretch from the 13th that actually left her tied with the Filipino heading into the third round. The home bet opened with a 65 on Wednesday and was threatening to run away with the tournament that early.

Korda, meanwhile, had a quadruple bogey 7 on No. 16, before a three-putt on the next effectively threw away a six-under card she diligently worked on in her first 15 holes. The charismatic American birdied the par-5 18th to be at 142, a stroke behind Pagdanganan.

The winding, water hazard-laden layout has shown in the first two rounds that it will not be an easy course to conquer. Pagdanganan and the rest of the field know this, which makes the final 36 holes relatively wide-open even if Metraux holds a one-shot lead over China’s Ruoning Yin and two over Lydia Ko of New Zealand.

“It’s not an easy golf course, it’s challenging and tough, physically and mentally,” Pagdanganan said. “I just try to keep my game plan simple.”