Rhea Purvi Sarvanan closed out her maiden professional win on the first playoff hole in the opening leg of the Hero WPGT 2025 season in Jamshedpur on Friday. Image courtesy WGAI.
By Rahul Banerji
Rhea Purvi Sarvanan battled to a maiden win in the opening leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour 2025 season in Jamshedpur on Friday, a repeat of the first event last year.
Kolar golfer Rhea (71) edged out amateur Saanvi Somu (71) in the first play-off hole at the Golmuri course after they finished tied on 1 under par 215 for the 54 holes of play, the WGAI said.
The 22-year-old Rhea had rounds of 72-72-71, while Saanvi, who has time and again finished runner-up, shot 75-69-71.
Now in her fifth season as a pro, Rhea lives and trains at Zion Hills near Bangalore. On Friday she bettered her previous best, a tied eighth place finish in the 14th leg of the 2024 HPWGT season.
Rhea seemed to have wrapped up the title with two holes to go as she was 3-under for the tournament and three shots clear of Saanvi after 16 holes.
Two dropped shots in succession and Saanvi’s birdie on 18 for the third day in a row, however, forced the play-off.
Closing out
In the shootout, Saanvi missed a six-footer for par and was sitting on a two-footer for bogey, when Rhea closed with par from six feet to also take the rankings lead.
Saanvi once again put up a fighting display while still being an amateur and has now been runner-up on quite a few occasions.
At the start of the day, Saanvi indicated she might break through for a maiden win, starting birdie-birdie for a two-shot lead which became three shots as co-leader Rhea bogeyed the third hole.
Then it was Saanvi who faltered. Between the third and the 16th she dropped three shots against one birdie while Rhea birdied holes 11, 12 and 14 holes to go ahead.
There was yet another twist as the three-shot lead disappeared with Rhea dropping shots on 17 and 18 and Saanvi picking a closing birdie to force the play-off.
Steady progress
The amateur though is not far from her breakthrough win as her golf during the week suggests.
Jasmine Shekar shot one of the only two sub-par scores with a 2 under 70 on Friday. However, over the last three holes she failed to find a birdie that would have got her into the play-off.
Jasmine finished third on level par 216, while day two joint-leader Durga Nittur slipped to fourth with a 77.
Neha Tripathi (72) and Sneha Singh (74) tied for fifth while Khushi Khanijau (67) who had an eagle and four birdies against one bogey carded the tournament’s low round of 67 to finish seventh.
Amandeep Drall (78), Anisha Agarwalla (73) and Ananya Garg (77) finished eighth, ninth and tenth.
The second leg of the tour will be held at Tollygunge Golf Club in Kolkata next week.
Also read: Amateur Saanvi joins Rhea and Durga in the lead at Golmuri
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