Bianca Pagdanganan’s brilliant season-ending burst didn’t only enable her to regain her full LPGA Tour status but also net her a dream spot in the elite CME Globe Tour Championship.

Pagdanganan closed out with a second straight 67, also behind a late, late surge she laced with a birdie-eagle roll from No. 13, then proved clutch by recovering from a mishap on No. 16 with a birdie on the last hole to seal her place in the star-studded, 60-player roster of the CME Globe Tour Championship unfolding Thursday at the Tiburon Golf Club’s Gold course in Naples, Florida.

Counting her two other three-under cards and a 69 at the Pelican Golf Club, the ICTSI-backed Pagdanganan erased all doubts as to her chances for a berth in this week’s $7 million season-ending event and re-claiming her (LPGA) card after losing full playing status for the 2023 season.

She wound up with 10-under 270 total and posted a strong tied for 19th finish in the Annika Driven by Gainbridge in Belleair, also in Florida Sunday that also had American Lilia Vu rallying to win the championship and recording her fourth victory in the season for a clear shot at the Player of the Year honors.

The final round likewise saw erstwhile leader Emily Pedersen lose her grip of the lead and eventually lose her spot in the CME Globe Tour that in one stretch had appeared to be hers for the taking.

Three-up over Vu and Korean Amy Yang after sterling rounds of 63-65-64, the Norwegian crumbled under pressure and limped with a birdie-less 74, marred by a wet double bogey on the 18th.

She ended up tied at fifth instead at 266 and lost precious points that would’ve boosted her previous No. 80 ranking in the CME race. Instead, she settled for 133 points that could only lift her to No. 70 in the final ranking, 10 spots short of target.

Vu, meanwhile, followed up her third round 62 with a 66 as she pooled a 261 and beat fellow American Alison Lee, who shot a 67 for a 264, by three to clinch the championship worth $487,500.

The two-time major winner this year (Chevron Championship and Women’s British Open) came into the Annika tilt just three points behind fellow four-leg champion Celine Boutier in the race for the points-based LPGA Player of the Year. With the Frenchwoman missing the weekend play, Vu, 26, is now up by 27 points heading to the CME Globe Tour Championship.

Meanwhile, from a shaky spot at No. 60, Pagdanganan gained 44 points and five spots as she wound up at No. 55 with 572.780 points.

Her superb four-day performance in Annika likewise netted her $39,029 (P2.2 million).
Pagdanganan’s rise to No. 55 in the CME was nothing short of being spectacular. With the LPGA season winding up fast, Pagdanganan, playing on conditional status, remained at No. 233 in the Rolex world rankings and way down in the CME race.
But a strong tied for third finish in the NW Arkansas Championship in Arizona in late September and an impressive joint runner-up effort in the Ascendant LPGA Benefitting Volunteers of America in Texas in early October lifted her to No. 160 in the world ranking.

Pagdanganan actually opened 2023 with a victory in the inaugural Anvaya Cove International in Bataan last February but made three missed cuts in her limited LPGA stints marked by a joint ninth place finish in the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational last July.
In 10 appearances on the Epson Tour, she also failed to advance three times while posting a best tied for eighth effort in the Copper Rock Championship last April.

After her back-to-back exploits in Arizona and Texas, the 2018 Asian Games bronze medalist crashed into Top 52 in the Race to CME Globe Season then dropped to No. 56 before ending up at the cutoff spot, No. 60, after missing a berth in the two-leg Asian swing of the LPGA in Malaysia and Japan.

But the University of Arizona product kept on honing her craft in preparation for the Annika tournament, making a swing stop in Taiwan where she delivered a runner-up finish in the Wistron Ladies Open.

She kept the momentum of that big finish as she launched her Annika bid with a 67. Tough she slowed down a bit with a second round 69, Pagdanganan came through with that back-to-back three-under cards to get into the CME Globe Tour and regain her full playing status in the money-rich LPGA circuit.

But expect the amiable Filipina, who broke into the LPGA consciousness in 2020 with her immense power, spiking her rookie season with a tied for ninth effort in a major, the Women’s PGA Championship, to keep going in an attempt to cap her remarkable late season charge with a top finish against the best and the brightest in the CME Globe Tour Championship.