Teenagers gain in women's golf rankings

• Tweet

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Teenagers Ariya Jutanugarn and Lydia Ko continued making gains in the women's world golf rankings, updated Monday.

Jutanugarn, a 17-year-old from Thailand, suffered a triple-bogey 8 on the final hole Sunday and finished in second at the Honda LPGA Thailand tournament. That allows her to jump 109 spots to No. 62 in the rankings.

Ko, a 15-year-old from New Zealand, over the last three weeks won the New Zealand Women's Open, was third the Women's Australian Open and tied for 14th in Thailand. Those results move her from 38 to No. 25 in the rankings.

There was no change among the Top 10 this week.

Even though Yani Tseng didn't successfully defend her Thailand title she still holds a strong hold on the No. 1 spot in the rankings. Her rankings point average is 9.84.

Choi Ne-yeon is second at 8.51 while Stacy Lewis, who tied for third (with Tseng among others) in Thailand, remains third at 8.02 and Thailand winner Inbee Park is fourth at 7.63. Lewis and Park both cut into Tseng's lead, although not dramatically.

Feng Shanshan remains fifth at 6.78 and Jayai Shin's average of 6.66 is sixth-best. Suzann Petersen is seventh with an average of 6.40, just ahead of No. 8 Ryu So-yeon (6.37). Ai Miyazato (5.98) is ninth and Mika Miyazato (5.31) completes the Top 10.

The LPGA completes its season-opening Asia series this week with the HSBC Women's Champions in Singapore.