Natsumi Nakanishi offered the field hope before hanging on to win last year’s Jennie K. Wilson Invitational.

On Sunday, the 18-year-old from Okinawa allowed little opportunity for final-round drama on her way to defending the title.

Nakanishi entered the final round of the 68th Jennie K. with an eight-shot lead and finished 11 strokes clear of the pack by carding a 2-over-par 74 on a breezy day at Mid-Pacific Country Club in Lanikai.

Despite the double-digit margin, “This tournament is more difficult than last one,” Nakanishi said through an interpreter.

Nakanishi finished at 2-over 218 in her final tournament before turning pro and said she tried to “keep my focus and try to play my best until the last stroke and stay in control.”

Nakanishi was seemingly in control last year when she took a six-shot lead into the closing round. But she scuffled to a 78 and managed to finish one shot ahead of University of Hawaii golfer Kaci Masuda.

Nakanishi returned to defend the title in Hawaii’s women’s major and entered Sunday’s play at even par after rounds of 71 and 73. Even with a bit of a shaky start to the final round, she remained firmly in command on her way to becoming the seventh player to win consecutive Jennie K. titles.

“I was hoping for that again today,” Masuda said of her charge last year. “I was leading her by three strokes halfway through the front nine so I was ‘maybe there’s a chance.’ But it’s all right. I tried my best.”

Nakanishi bogeyed her second hole and a double-bogey on the par-5 third allowed Masuda, who birdied No. 2, to cut the gap to five.

But Nakanishi, who maintained a business-like approach throughout, answered with a birdie on the par-3 fourth and remained steady to pull away.

She birdied both par 5s on the back nine, burying a putt from more than 50 feet away on No. 12 and tapping in for a four on No. 16. A booming drive to the left side of the narrow 17th fairway and a solid approach set up a 7-foot putt for her final birdie.

“Her short game is very good,” said Masuda, who played with Nakanishi in the final group the past two years. “She’ll be scrambling for par and every time she sinks her putt. Even when she’s not playing well, she manages to come back to play consistent. That’s something I’ve been trying to work on, especially from seeing how she played last year.”

Masuda, a UH junior who earned her first collegiate win at the Anuenue Spring Break Classic at Kapalua in March, earned her second straight runner-up finish at 13 over with a final round of 76. Maui’s Kaylee Shimizu was another shot back and three-time champion Anna Murata placed fourth.

Nakanishi is part of the group to win back-to-back titles in the tournament that began in 1950. Murata won in 1995, ’97 and ’98 and the list of players to successfully defend a Jennie K. title includes Jackie Yates (1953-54), Ramona McGuire (1958-59), Joan Damon (1961-64), Kristina Merkle (2006-07 and 2009-10) and Mariel Galdiano (2014-15).