Rookie Bianca Pagdanganan and Dottie Ardina fired identical two-under 70 and trailed Aussie Hannah Green and American Cydney Clanton by four at the start of the Cambia Portland Classic of the LPGA Tour in Oregon Friday.
Both Ardina and Pagdanganan started poorly but recovered quite well with four birdies each before dropping a stroke on the par-4 17th in separate flights for a share of 23rd with 14 others, including last week’s ANA Inspiration champion Mirim Lee of South Korea.
Ardina made up for an opening-hole bogey with three birdies in a four-hole stretch from No. 4 before making another on the par-3 13th.
She had nines of 34-36 – no thanks to a 17th hole bogey mishap.
Pagdanganan bogeyed the second hole but birdied the fifth before coming through with three straight birdies from No. 10.
She also bogeyed the difficult 17th for a 36-34 round.
Yuka Saso, on the other hand, failed to recover from a cold start and finished with a one-over 73 to virtually bow out of the title race after two rounds of the Descente Ladies Tokai Classic now paced by Hiroko Azuma and Ayaka Furue at the Shinminami Country Club in Aichi, Japan.
She started the day just three strokes off opening day leader Pei-Ying Tsai but her driver failed her and bogeyed the opening hole right away. She also bogeyed the par-3 No. 6
Though she birdied the par-5 12th to get back to three-under overall, the Fil-Japanese settled for pars the rest of the way for a 38-35 and a 141 total, thus tumbling from joint 10th to a share of 26th.
Saso is now eight strokes behind Azuma and Furue heading to the final 18 holes of the event serving as the sixth stop of the LPGA of Japan Tour season.
Saso claims driving honors
Meantime, Saso ruled the Driving Queen Contest after blasting a 270-yard drive.
Saso bested 11 others including former back-to-back champion Lala Anai and Anna Kono, who produced similar 268-yard drives.
The Fil-Japanese, 19, won Y500,000 (roughly P230,000).