Pettersen, Choi climb in women's golf rankings

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., April 22 (UPI) -- Suzann Pettersen's win and Choi Ne-yeon's strong finish in a Hawaii LPGA event moved them up in this week's world women's golf rankings.

Petersen defeated Lizette Salas on the first hole of a playoff Saturday in winning the LPGA LOTTE Championship. It was her 11th LPGA title and 18th win overall.

It also allowed her to pass Ryu So-yeon for No. 5 in the world rankings.

Choi had closing rounds of 67-66 in Hawaii and ended up tied for sixth, which was enough to pass former No. 1-ranked Yani Tseng for third in the rankings. Tseng tied for 38th in the event.

Inbee Park owns the No. 1 spot, with a ranking points average of 9.43 while Stacy Lewis is second at 9.09. Choi has an average of 8.14 and Tseng's is 8.10.

Pettersen had her average move to 7.50, solidly ahead of Ryu, who is ranked sixth, at 6.77.

Jiyai Shin is seventh at 6.38 followed by, in order, Feng Shanshan (6.18), Ai Miyazato (6.09) and Karrie Webb (4.83).

The runner-up result for Salas has her moving up 15 places to 22nd in the rankings.