As the race for the LPGA Lotte Championship tightened behind her, Inbee Park took control in the duel for the world’s No. 1 ranking.

Park moved into the top spot in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings when the calculations played out in her favor during an off week in the tour schedule. She retained it with her performance over four rounds at Ko Olina Golf Club, closing with her second consecutive 5-under 67 on Saturday.

Park’s points average was 0.04 ahead of Stacy Lewis — the world’s top player for the four weeks previous — entering the tournament. Her final total of 13 under par left her tied for fourth, five spots ahead of Lewis on the leaderboard, and kept her ahead in the rankings as well.

"I knew I had to play better (than Lewis) to keep it," Park said. "I made my goal today, so I’m happy."

Tracking each other’s progress was simplified by playing in the same group on Saturday, and Park didn’t give Lewis much opportunity to make a run past her.

"It seems like we play together a lot," said Lewis, who shot a 71 on Saturday to finish at 10 under. "It seems like we’re always close and we’re always kind of playing against each other. It’s fun to see where she is with her game. She’s playing well, we’re both playing well. It’s nice to have that little battle back and forth."

Yani Tseng entered the tournament third in the rankings and could have leapfrogged into the lead with a victory if Park faltered. But the former world No. 1 finished tied for 38th at 3 under. No. 4 Na Yeon Choi tied for sixth, two shots behind Park.

"Na Yeon, Yani and myself and Inbee — any one of us could be No. 1 in the world in any given week and I think that’s cool," Lewis said. "It’s fun for people to follow."

Park began the day six shots out of the lead and had four birdies in her first eight holes on Saturday to move to 12 under for the tournament. But with the leaders not coming back to the field, Park figured the title was out of reach by the time she made the turn.

"(Eventual champion) Suzann (Pettersen) was playing really good golf and it was still too far to catch her," Park said.

She carded her lone bogey in the last 36 holes on No. 10 and added birdies on the par-3 12th hole and the par-5 14th.

"Today was a lot easier conditions than yesterday to score," Park said. "I definitely left a lot of putts out there. I could have made a lot more putts, but I hit the ball great today, hit a lot of greens and fairways, so that’s something I’m really happy about.

"The first two rounds I didn’t really go low and I think that really cost me this week. Otherwise I played very solid golf all week."

Lewis had a rougher time in her final 18 at Ko Olina. She birdied the third hole, then stumbled with a double bogey on the par-5 fifth hole and a bogey on No. 10.

She made a run of three birdies in the next four holes and posted her fifth top-10 finish in seven events this season.

"I three-putted 10 and was kind of mad at myself, and just made a goal that if I can get inside the top 10 that would be a pretty good win after the start," Lewis said. "I was trying to gut it out and trying to climb the leaderboard.

"I was in position to win the golf tournament with a good round and unfortunately I just didn’t do that."