Tokyo—Bianca Pagdanganan of the Philippines weathered the sweltering conditions at the Kasumigaseki Golf Club in Saitama and shot a two-under-par 69 on Wednesday to keep the leaders within reach after the opening round of the Summer Olympic Games’ golf competition.
Using an ice pack and a fan as weapons to battle the heat—34 °C—in between shots, the longest hitter in the Ladies Professional Golf Association birdied the first two holes to start her bid on a high note.
The 23-year-old Pagdanganan then made two more birdies against one bogey in her last five holes — including a near ace on the 16th – to grab a share of seventh place with LPGA winners Inbee Park of Korea and Danielle Kang of the US.
Also tied with them are Czech Republic’s Klara Spilkova, Denmark’s Nanna Koertz Madsen, Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Wei-Ling and Lee Min, Spain’s Azahara Munoz and Korea’s Kim Sei Young.
Pagdanganan is also just three shots out of the lead held by Madelene Sagstrom of Sweden.
In contrast, Women’s US Open champion Yuka Saso went the other way on a day when the humidity that shot up to the mid-30 degrees Celsius, put the Fil-Japanese’s caddie Lionel Matichuck in a hospital.
The day before, a heat stroke left Pagdanganan’s coach Carito Villaroman in a clinic inside the course due to dehydration.
Saso couldn’t get going all day and finished with a three-over 74 that left her in a share of 47th place, needing to make up ground in Thursday’s second round to get back in it.
The reigning PSA Athlete of the Year made an early bogey on No. 2, steadied herself in mid-round only to slump with successive bogeys from the 16th.
World number one Nelly Korda fired a 67 to be just a shot off the lead.
Meanwhile, middleweight Eumir Marcial and flyweight Carlo Paalam try to punch their way to the gold-medal round at the Kokugikan Arena.
The two are one win away from a silver feat and two from gold, but tough assignments await them in the fourth to the last day of boxing action here.
Marcial is up against Ukrainian Oleksandr Khyzhniak, who dealt the Filipino a shattering loss at the Strandja International in Bulgaria in 2019.
Paalam, on the other hand, faces Japanese Ryomei Tanaka, and may need a good performance with convincing shots so as not to let sympathetic judging go the hometown bet’s way.
Paalam will be the first to be up in the ring at 2:30 p.m. (1:30 p.m. in Manila), while Marcial clashes with the Ukrainian at 3:03 p.m.
