By Keely Levins
While Bryson DeChambeau was boasting about his first 400-plus-yard drive, there were some big gains on the LPGA Tour, too. Bianca Pagdanganan, a rookie who turns 23 on Wednesday, has enjoyed notoriety of late by appearing near the top of the LPGA Tour’s distance rankings. She’s averaging 288.8 yards for the season, besting fellow bombers Maria Fassi (282.2 yards) and Anne van Dam (281.8 yards) to lead the tour. But at the LPGA Drive On Championship at Reynolds Lake Oconee, Pagdanganan was hitting it far—even for her.

According to the tour, Pagdanganan’s longest drive of the week came during Saturday’s third round, when she hit her tee shot on the 18th hole 317 yards. She had an iron into the green with her second shot, while others had to lay up on the closing par 5.

Pagdanganan’s father told LPGA.com that she wants to become the first LPGA player to have a driving-distance average of 300 yards. And she nearly did that at least for a week in Georgia. Pagdanganan’s first-round driving average was 300 yards (a stat computed off the average tee shots on two selected holes where all players are presumed to hit driver). She followed that with a 295-yard average in the second round, 310 yards during the third round and 293 yards in the final round. That brought her four-round average to 299.5 yards, incredibly close to the 300-yard mark.

Interestingly, Pagdanganan is hitting it far without having the benefit of height or a big athletic build similar to other long drivers on the LPGA Tour. Van Dam stands 5’10” while Pagdanganan is all of 5’5”.

Importantly, Pagdanganan, a native of the Phillipines who played on the 2018 NCAA Championship team at Arizona along with fellow LPGA rookie Haley Moore, is more than just a bomber. Her last two performances suggests she’s arrived on tour will a full game. She finished third on Sunday at the Drive On Championship, going bogey-free during her final round while finishing two shots back of winner Ally McDonald and one shot behind runner-up Danielle Kang. Before that, Pagdanganan finished T-9 at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, her first career start in a major.

“If you told me a couple years ago that I would be playing on the LPGA Tour and in this position in my rookie year I probably wouldn’t believe you,” Pagdanganan said.

Though she didn’t hit the 300-yard average in Georgia, it’s would seem to be only a matter of time before she does.

The post Bianca Pagdanganan just missed averaging 300 yards off the tee at the LPGA Drive On Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Keely Levins
The LPGA Tour announced on Wednesday that during its testing ahead of this week’s LPGA Drive On Championship at Reynolds Lake Oconee in Georgia, two people came up positive for COVID-19, although neither was a player. Following contact tracing protocol, however, Maria Torres has withdrawn from the tournament after her caddie was one of the two positive results.

The other person who tested positive is a childcare provider who worked in the tour’s daycare, a benefit the tour offers members who are mothers so they can compete without worrying about childcare while they’re on course. According to a statement from the LPGA, the provider who tested positive was in contact with children in the daycare on Monday. The childcare provider is in quarantine, and following contract tracing, the children who were in contact with the childcare provider are in quarantine. However, the mothers of the children, who are players, do not have to quarantine.

“Following guidance from the CDC and the LPGA medical directors, contacts of a contact [in this case, tour member mothers] are not considered contagious and do not require isolation or quarantine,” the LPGA statement reads.

Torres, the first woman from Puerto Rico to secure her LPGA Tour card, is in her third season on tour. The 25-year-old, who has had one top 10 finish this season, is symptom-free.

“After learning through the LPGA Tour testing process that my caddie tested positive for COVID-19, I have withdrawn from the LPGA Drive On Championship,” Torres said in a statement. “I am not experiencing any symptoms, but I am self-isolating and will follow CDC and LPGA guidelines. I really look forward to when I can play again and wish best of luck to everyone competing this week.”

The post Tour reports two positive COVID-19 tests at LPGA event, neither from players appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.