Inbee Park’s remarkable consistency has kept her atop the world golf rankings for a full year now.

Michelle Wie has added that attribute to her game in greater measure in a swift ascent up the chart this season as she returns home for the LPGA Lotte Championship

Both will be among the leading story lines when the tournament opens Wednesday morning at Ko Olina Golf Club.

Wie tees off at 12:30 p.m. at Ko Olina’s 10th hole along with Anna Nordqvist, a two-time winner this season, and Shanshan Feng in the first round of the LPGA’s stop in Hawaii.

The $1.7 million tournament (the winner takes home $255,000) features six of the top 10 players in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings and 14 of the top 20.

Wie is approaching that status at No. 23 this week, up from No. 62 at the end of 2013.

The Punahou graduate enters the week leading the tour in scoring average at 69.75 shots per round in six events this season. She’s coming off a second-place finish at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the first major of the year.

Wie has three top 10s and has finished no lower than 16th in her starts. She has given herself opportunities to stay in the 60s by hitting greens in regulation at a nearly 81 percent rate, also best on tour.

Wie has shot under par a tour-best 21 rounds out of 24 after going into red numbers a total of 35 times last year, 19 times in 2012 and just eight times in 2011, when her scoring average topped 74.

"Just been working on a lot of different things, but that’s just been really my main goal with (coach) David Leadbetter and I in the offseason," Wie said of her consistent play this season. " We talked a lot about our goals this year and consistency is definitely one of my top priorities this year. I just want to go out there and just play consistent rounds."

Maintaining that consistency will be challenged by the winds that typically blow through Ko Olina. Wie missed the cut in the inaugural event in 2012 and made it on the number last year when the wind inflated enough scores to get her into the third round. She finished in a tie for 28th.

Along with the confidence built over her recent run, Wie enters the tournament planning to ease the self-induced pressure that can accompany playing at home.

"I want to win, I want to play really well here," she said. "This year I’m just going to put no pressure on myself. I’m just going to go out there and try and enjoy myself and have a lot of fun."

Park returns to Ko Olina with a full year as the world’s top player behind her. She had taken over the top spot the week of last year’s Lotte Championship and isn’t showing signs of loosening her grip.

Park won six events including the season’s first three major championships on her way to becoming the first South Korean player to claim Rolex Player of the Year honors in a remarkable 2013.

In her last visit to Ko Olina, Park opened with rounds of 70 and 71 then posted twin rounds of 67 to tie for fourth, six strokes behind Suzann Pettersen and Lizette Salas. She went on to top the money list for the second straight year with over $2 million in earnings.

"A lot of things happened since this (tournament) last year," Park said. "I’ve had a lot of wins, and I’ve experienced a lot of things. I feel like I’m probably a lot more mature player than I was last year, and I feel more comfortable out here, and being in the No. 1 spot feels a little more comfortable now."

Park will have a chance to widen her lead in the Rolex Rankings with Pettersen, the world’s second-ranked player, unable to defend her Lotte title due to a back injury. The next highest ranked player in the field is 16-year-old Lydia Ko, who is one of 21 tour rookies in the field. She already has two wins in her career and enters the week ranked fourth.

Paula Creamer returns as the ninth-ranked player and two of her nine career wins have come in Hawaii. She won the SBS Open at Turtle Bay in 2007 and captured the Fields Open the following year at Ko Olina.

"I’ve always liked playing in the wind. I’ve always liked harder conditions," Creamer said. "Growing up in Northern California, we kind of had it all, whether it was wind, rain, cold. The tougher the conditions the better. I’ve been pretty lucky I’ve always played well here in Hawaii, whether it was at Turtle Bay or here when I won. But I just like it."

New deal is close

Lotte and the LPGA are close to finalizing a deal to extend the company’s sponsorship of the Lotte Championship, a tour official confirmed Tuesday.

Sean Pyun, the LPGA’s managing director for international business affairs, said discussions on a three-year extension are ongoing "and we are very close."

Lotte is in the final year of its initial three-year sponsorship of the tournament at Ko Olina Golf Club.

The LPGA returned to Hawaii in 2012 after a three-year absence, with Lotte, a conglomerate based in South Korea and Japan, as the title sponsor and J Golf as presenting sponsor.