Nasa Hataoka moved up one notch to a personal-best fifth in the latest women's world golf rankings released Monday.
The 20-year-old is playing her third season on the U.S. tour. She captured two titles last year while becoming the youngest Japanese toclaim a LPGA Tour event title at the age of 19 years and 5 months when she won her maiden title at the NW Arkansas Championship in June.
She finished her second season fifth on the money list compared to 140th in her rookie season.
This year, she has competed in three LPGA tournaments, with a 16th place at the Jan. 17-20 Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions her best result so far.
The top three remained unchanged, with South Korea's Park Sung-hyun maintaining her position atop the rankings.