LANIKAI — "Having fun?" someone asked Kristina Merkle as she headed to the 17th tee at the Mid-Pacific Country Club yesterday.

"Oh, yeah," said the Moanalua High School sophomore, who had just tapped in for a par at the previous par-5 hole.

Why shouldn't she?

She was headed for her second straight Jennie K. Wilson Invitational title and a whopping 13-stroke victory in the first local women's major golf tournament of the year.

What was supposed to have been a final-round duel with Jaclyn Hilea didn't materialize as her former Moanalua High golf teammate, who started the day just one stroke back, shot a 17-over-par 89.

The only challenge left for Merkle was trying to beat par. She nearly succeeded, posting a 1-over 73 for a 54-hole total of 218.

"Par is a good score, but I was trying to do better," Merkle said.

Hilea tumbled to fifth place at 235, leaving Nicole Sakamoto, a Kalani High junior, who played in the group ahead, as the surprising runner-up finisher.

"It was a magical week after her fiasco in the (U.S.) Women's Open (local) qualifying when she was three- and four-putting," said Merkle's caddie, Ty Otake.

Before the tournament, Merkle said she was practicing her chipping and putting "because that was where my weak areas were."

It paid off, after she continued her remarkable up-and-down play even after taking a 9-stroke lead over Hilea at the turn when the latter hit successive tee shots out of bounds and took a quintuple-9 at the seventh hole.

At 10, Merkle pulled her drive left under the trees, leaving her no chance to hit a high pitch over the bunker. She went over the green but pitched back to 5 feet to save par. At her final hole, Merkle nearly drove OB right and had to chip back to the fairway for her second shot. She went up and down again to save par.

With such a big lead, Merkle said she was just trying to play her own game.

That she did with her par saves, including a terrific two-putt from 55 feet at the par-3 14th. After birdieing the par-5 third, with her only bogeys came at the sixth and 15th holes.

"Everything kind of went my way," said Merkle, ecstatic about making it two Jennie K. titles in a row, becoming only the fifth player to do so in the 57-year history of the event.

How's about three in a row?

"I can't even think about that far yet. I just want to soak up the moment," said Merkle, whose margin of victory is second only to Lori Castillo's record 17-stroke runaway in 1983.

And Merkle commiserated with Hilea.

"I feel really bad about what happened. I thought she would do a lot better because she is such a great player, " Merkle said.

"I don't even know what to say," Hilea said about her disastrous final round. "I started bad and ended bad. I just couldn't bring it back. And that (the two OBs at 7) was just over the top already."

Hilea got some good advice from her caddie, Lance Suzuki, who is an eight-time Mid-Pacific Open champion, which is played at the same course:

"You're going to get days like this when nothing goes right. It's a game that can make you cry. On days like this, you've just got to put up with it."

NOTES

Merkle joins Anna Umemura, Jackie Yates, Ramona McGuire and Joan Damon as the only players who have won the Jennie K. in successive years. Damon won it four straight years from 1961 to 1964.

The 54-hole tournament record is 6-under 216 set by Lori Castillo in 1983 when the women's par was 74.

Cathy Kobayashi, a Mid-Pacific CC member who is 83 years old, won D-Flight honors.