Lydia Ko's meteoric rise to the top of women's golf has shown little sign of slowing down but the New Zealand teen was forced to take a back seat to a pair of former number ones at the LPGA Tour's HSBC Women's Champions in Singapore.

The 17-year-old, who has claimed back-to-back wins in Australia and New Zealand recently, put herself well in contention for a hat-trick of wins with a four-under 68 over the Serapong course as she finished two behind joint leaders Inbee Park and Yani Tseng.

Park, the former world No 1 before Ko rose to the top last month, made the most of cooler early conditions to fire a bogey-free six-under 66 to claim a tie for first place alongside another former global leader Tseng, who is showing glimpses of a return to form after a two-year slump.

The 26-year-old from Taiwan dominated women's golf at the start of the decade, sitting on top of the world rankings for 109 weeks from 2011. A wretched run of results saw her slip to 90th a fortnight ago but a morale-boosting second place finish in Thailand last week has kick-started a resurgence.

Catriona Matthew, the 2009 Women's British Open champion from North Berwick, opened with a level-par 72 but Paula Creamer, this week's defending champion, could only muster a 74 and shares 51st place in the 63-player field.