By: Steve Derderian
sderderian@massgolf.org
MASHPEE, Massachusetts (June 3, 2026) – The surprises kept finding Coco Chai early Wednesday, and she seemed happy to follow where they led. Two lengthy par saves steadied her on the opening holes. And then a tee shot on the par-3 4th nearly disappeared into the cup, leaving Chai to pull up to the green and ask, “Was that me?” before putting down a marker and tapping in for birdie and the lead.
By then, the former Yale Bulldog and self-described weekend golfer, more accustomed lately to rounds around Boston’s George Wright and Franklin Park, had found herself out front in her Mass Golf championship debut. Unfazed, she stayed there the rest of the way, carrying the momentum to a three-stroke victory in the 76th Massachusetts Women’s Stroke Play Championship for the Baker Trophy.
“It’s nice to be able to take time off from work and just focus on something more related to personal growth,” said Chai, who finished with a scoreline of 77-73—150 (+6). “I love golf, I really enjoy it, and it’s great to be playing well and just have fun out here.”
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A Beijing native who has lived in Boston for the past three years since graduating from Yale, Chai said she has seldom competed since college. Now working for a consulting firm in the city, she found familiar scenery at New Seabury’s Ocean Course, which reminded her of the coastal California setting she knew from her four years she spent there attending Santa Catalina School in Monterey.
“[There’s] an ocean course and then you also have the woods, so very similar to the Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill that I used to play almost 10 years ago,” Chai said.
Starting the day one shot back of leader Morgan Smith (Mount Pleasant Golf Club), Chai opened with consecutive par saves from outside 15 feet before her tee shot on the forced-carry 4th caught the front-right slope, bounced and rolled toward the flag and nearly dropped for an ace. “That was great because I was scrambling and saving par, and it was good to finally hit a good shot and have a birdie,” Chai said.
After playing the opening stretch in 4-over, Smith was able to get two strokes back with an eagle on the par-5 5th but couldn’t close the gap any further, finishing T6 overall.
From there, Chai said she was able to play conservatively the rest of the way. After a three-putt bogey on the par-5 10th, she parred the final eight holes, including a steady finish on the 18th after a key decision to switch to hybrid for her approach. That left her safely on the green and allowed her to two-putt for par, holding off a late charge from St. Lawrence University’s Sadie Cumming (Dedham Country & Polo Club), who birdied Nos. 16 and 17 to earn a second-place finish at 9-over.
“I didn’t want to make any super aggressive choices, so I feel like it paid off, and I made the right decisions,” Chai said.
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For the fourth consecutive year, Christine Gagner (Bedrock Golf Club) captured the Tournament Division title, shooting back-to-back rounds of 78 and punctuating the victory with a chip-in from just off the back of the green on the par-4 17th.
The victory gives Gagner the longest win streak in the tournament since Shannon Johnson won the Championship Division four consecutive times from 2015 to 2018. But for Gagner, the event means more than another title. It has been a cherished tradition since she first began competing in Women’s Golf Association of Massachusetts events.
“It’s always a very special tournament, I’ve been playing in it since I started playing golf 35 years ago,” Gagner said. “It’s a wonderful place to come and see all my friends and play golf. It’s always been a happy tournament. I just come and play and have fun.”
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