PAGDANGANAN Bianca

General
GENDER DISPARITY
In 2021 she spoke about the difference in media exposure and the financial rewards on offer for men's golf compared to the women's game. "I do appreciate that people are starting to pay a bit more attention to women's golf. But at the end of the day, I think that breaking down these barriers goes beyond matching up to the skills of a guy. There are other barriers that persist, like the gender pay gap, and the level of exposure or attention given not just to women's golf but to women's sports in general." (ph.asiatatler.com, 11 Feb 2021)

LONG HITTER
She considers herself a long driver in the women's game, which she says is partly due to playing against male opponents growing up. "I only realised that [she was a long driver] in college. I had no idea. I'm not a technical person, I just try to swing the club and enjoy ripping it off the tee. I really do think I gained distance in college but then I also don't remember doing anything spectacular to hit it farther. I didn't grow up with a lot of girlfriends. It was my guy friends that I played with. So I didn't have a baseline. But when I would play with guys, they would try to keep up with me. And I'm so competitive, I was like, 'You're not going to hit it past me'. I'm the least mechanical and technical person you've ever seen. People talk to me about clubs and how the swing works and I'm like, 'Oh, interesting', because I just grip and rip it. [Length] is an advantage out there, but it's not all about distance. You've got to have everything intact. There's still a lot of things to work on." (spin.ph, 08 Jan 2021; read.nxtbook.com, 02 Nov 2020; golfweek.usatoday.com, 23 Sep 2020; tribune.net.ph, 06 Aug 2020)

RETURNING PRIZE MONEY
After winning gold in the team event and bronze in the individual event at the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia, she and her national teammates had to turn down the monetary incentives on offer from their performance at the event due to their amateur status. "It was really, for me, never about the money. Growing up, representing the country was really my biggest dream and goal. So I felt great to be able to do that." (philstar.com, 15 Jan 2019)

OTHER STUDIES
She studied for two years at Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA, United States of America, before transferring to the University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ, United States of America, in 2017. One of the motivating factors for her transfer was the warmer weather conditions in Arizona. "I really wanted to be able to play outdoors. It was kind of difficult to do at Gonzaga, and now I'm able to every day." (arizonawildcats.com, 11 Jul 2018; wildcat.arizona.edu, 10 Apr 2018)