FALL RIVER, Massachusetts (May 12, 2025) – If you drove past Fall River Country Club today and witnessed the shear volume of golfers on the course, you’d have thought nothing of it. This picture perfect May Monday was created for golf. Surely every sun-drenched fairway and green in Massachusetts was speckled with truants. But there was more than opportunistic reveling going on at Fall River. The masses, a double-shotgun’s worth, were there to compete. An army of two-woman teams took to the banks of the Taunton River for the 2025 Cris Eaton Chapman Tournament, a popular event since its origin in 1966.
In the Chapman format, each teammate hits a tee shot and proceed to play their partner’s ball as their second shot. Competitors then select a ball and alternate shots until the ball is in the hole. Low gross and net were awarded for each of two divisions (Division 1, Handicaps Up to 18.0 & Division 2, Handicaps 18.1 and above).
A year after winning by a two-shot margin at Cranberry Valley, Kristen Henderson (The Tour) and Mercedese (Ellie) Large (Taconic Golf Club) made it back-to-back victories at the Cris Eaton, this time finishing three clear of runners up Kim Walecka (Country Club of New Bedford) and Temple Mitchell (Allendale Country Club).
“It’s pretty neat to be defending,” said Large. “The best part is that I actually have the best partner and one of the nicest things about that is that [addressing Henderson] I think you are so calm, and just balanced and just wonderful. And I’m like the opposite of that, and so I think that we sort of feed off of each other. I appreciate your calm.”
Henderson shared the sentiment, “I never have to worry if I’m out of a hole, Ellie is right there. We just supported each other. It wasn’t easy. We weren’t like: fairway, green, two-putt. We scrambled.”
Henderson and Large started their afternoon round on the par-5 1st and quickly dipped into red figures with an opening birdie, echoing their 1-under start a year ago. Though they bogeyed the 5th and 7th to go out in 1-over 38, birdies at the 10th and 12th affirmed their place atop the leaderboard, leaving little drama to be mulled for the inward six holes. With a substantial lead established, a few bogeys on the closing stretch were no real bother, and 2-over 74 left a comfortable margin for the repeat victors.
The last team to win in consecutive years was Shannon Johnson and Megan Buck (2017, 2018, 2019). Buck and Johnson are currently in Oklahoma for the 2025 U.S. Women’s Amateur Four-Ball, where they just advanced to the sweet sixteen in match play. Not bad company! Though this is the second win for Large and Henderson as a team, Henderson is now three times a winner (2021 with Elizabeth Derwin).
Large and Henderson had this season-opening event circled on their calendars since the winter, and their measured approach to the funky Chapman format could well beget more success in the future. “What I like about it is it forces me to concentrate. I mean, I get a break for a minute, because you don’t have to take the next shot. You can sort of calm yourself down and then get into that next shot,” said Large.
“And you trust your partner. We trusted that the other one would be there when we weren’t at our best,” added Henderson.
View this post on Instagram
In Division II, Glenna Goodnow and Necia O’Neill of South Shore Country Club nabbed the win with a score of 93. In the net standings, Sheila Monterastelli and Wendy Barry of Hopkinton Country Club led the way in Division I, while Elizabeth Wilson and Winnie Cotter of the Fairway Ladies of Franklin Park were the low Division II net finishers.
All of Mass Golf’s women’s tournaments and some of its championships are named after some of the pioneering women involved with organizing and promoting amateur golf in Massachusetts. During her time, Cris Eaton was among the most popular women in the game, known for her charm, wit and unequivocal appreciation for sportsmanship and fair play. She helped bridge the gap between older, established players to the newcomers to the game. Eaton also helped establish the New England Women’s Golf Association (now part of the New England Golf Association) and twice served as president of the Women’s Golf Association of Massachusetts (now part of Mass Golf). The Cris Eaton Tournament began one year after her death in 1965 and has been played every year since (except for 2020).
In the year 1900, the land on which the course currently sits was leased to the recently formed Fall River Country Club at $400/year for ten years by the Hambly and Hathaway families. The owner of the land reportedly said, “the game of golf is just a fad and will not last long.”
That take didn’t age well, Mr. Hambly.
In 1918, the Hamblys and Hathaways sold the land to the club. The families were convinced that some of the infamous Captain Kidd‘s treasure was stashed somewhere along the shores of their property, and asked that a clause in the contract stipulate that if any treasure was recovered, it would go to the families. No such clause was included, and to date, no such treasure has been found.
For many years, FRCC was limited to nine holes. In the ’50s, 20 acres of land was added from dredging of the Taunton River. In 1974, architects Geoffrey Cornish and Bill Robinson were commissioned to design another 9 holes on the recovered land, completing today’s 18 hole routing.
For the latest updates on all Mass Golf events, visit MassGolf.org or follow Mass Golf on Facebook, X, and Instagram at @PlayMassGolf.
