Bianca Pagdanganan carded a 1-under-par 70 for a share of 24th place at the start of the Ascendant LPGA in The Colony, Texas on Thursday, Oct. 5 (Friday in Manila).

The Tokyo Olympian had three birdies marred by two bogeys for nines of 34-36 to trail Hyo Joo Kim by six strokes after the South Korean fired a 7-under 64 for the solo lead.

Kim reeled off four straight birdies on the back nine for a two-shot lead after getting her putting working where she had eight birdies in this 72-hole tournament.

She made a good start toward that aim with her birdies at the 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th, converting putts ranging from three to nine feet.

Three players shared second on 66, Paraguay's Sofia Garcia and Taiwan's Hou Yu-Sang each had five birdies without a bogey in their five-under efforts while Spanish veteran Azahara Munoz had seven birdies and two bogeys.

Australian Sarah Kemp and American Marina Alex shared fifth on 67, and it was a further stroke back to Japan's Minami Katsu, South Korean Jenny Shin and American Lindsey Weaver-Wright on 68.

Meanwhile, Dottie Ardina stumbled with an opening 72 for joint 51^st place.

She had bogeys on the seventh and 13^th against a lone birdie on the 18^th.

Pagdanganan resumes her bid when she tees off with Lee Jeongeun and A Lim Kin at 8:09 p.m.

Ardina, for her part, tees off on the back nine along with Sophia Schubert and Bronte Law at 7:47 a.m.

Pagdanganan is coming off an impressive showing at the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship last week where she finished tied for third place. Ardina also competed in the same tournament and finished joint 10^th.