MIRACLE MAYA MASTERS NEW HEIGHTS

Abu Dhabi-based youngster realises a dream at Augusta

BY MATT SMITH

Maya Palanza Gaudin

is seriously well travelled and has made a serious mark on the game of golf, with victories in Abu Dhabi, India, Scotland, Boston and at the famous Augusta National in Georgia to name a few.

Oh, and she’s 13.

In a tale that reads like a fanciful work of fiction from the mind of a Hollywood feelgood scriptwriter, Maya’s journey already has more twists and turns than a drive up Jebel Hafeet, and — even with victory at the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals at Augusta during Masters week in April — this is a trip that still has miles to go.

While Abu Dhabi-based Maya is one of the latest products to come off the conveyor belt of young UAE-based golfing talent, it is amazing that she even made it this far at all.

Maya was in serious danger when her biological mother died shortly after childbirth in her South Ethiopian village near the Kenyan border. With no one to breastfeed the baby, her father and uncles carried Maya the 55 miles to the nearest hospital. Once Maya was safe, her father gave her one more gift for the best shot at a good life by putting her up for adoption.

Maya was taken in by a Bostonian couple based in Abu Dhabi — Stephen Gaudin, a former overseas FBI agent, and his wife Cassandra, who works in the American embassy in the UAE capital. The golf-loving pair introduced Maya to the game at the age of five and enrolled her in the Emirates Golf Federation’s Future Falcons National Junior Development Programme.

“The way I see it, Maya’s birth mother gave her life and her birth father saved her life, and our job since has been to love, nurture and provide every opportunity to Maya to embrace her life including this wonderful gift for the game of golf,” Cassandra explained on the Masters website.

Under Stephen’s guidance, a young Maya became an EGF Future Falcon and was already showing talent well beyond her years with a victory in India before she won the 2021 Ladies Championship in the Yas Links Abu Dhabi sunshine. That was followed up in somewhat different conditions at the US Kids European Championship (12yo Category) at The Glen Golf Club, North Berwick, in the permanently wet, cold and breezy Scottish weather, to win by four strokes.

“I got to play at St Andrews afterwards,” a smiling Maya said. “We drove up there. It’s my close-second favourite now I have seen Augusta.”

Boston was next on the calendar and Maya was just getting warmed up. “The golf ball doesn’t care who you are, or where you were born,” the wisebeyond-her-years youngster said after her victory booked her spot in the Augusta field. “The golf ball doesn’t care how much money you may have or about what your father and grandfather did for a job. The golf ball doesn’t care about the colour of your skin, or how tall, skinny, heavy or popular you are. The golf ball doesn’t care about what school you go to. The golf ball only cares about one thing and only one thing: how you swing the club. That’s what I love about golf — it’s just about you and the golf ball.”

Through the connection with Yas Links, Maya has some head-turning friends, too. She has teed it up with Rory McIlroy in DP World Tour pro- ams, as well as Thomas Pieters, Tommy Fleetwood and Robert MacIntyre.

The pros know Maya so well by now that, when her parents were searching for her at Yas Links this January during the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, McIlroy told Stephen and Cassandra: “I just saw her. She’s inside.’”

“He’s so nice to me,” Maya said of four-time major winner McIlroy. “He’s very kind. I get to see him almost every time when he comes to Abu Dhabi tournaments.”

Maya’s appearance at the National Finals was no easy feat and it was something she had been trying to achieve for half of her short lifetime.

“Six times [I tried to qualify], but it would’ve been seven with the COVID year,” Maya said after her famous win that received a congratulatory tweet from McIlroy.

At the Drive, Chip and Putt, participants compete in three skills (unsurprisingly driving distance, and chipping and putting accuracy), with three shots per skill going towards a final score. With 26 points, Maya won the Girls 12-13 years category by four points from joint runners-up Narah Hope Kim, from Georgia, and Ruihan Kendria Wang, from Washington.

“It probably wasn’t supposed to happen, but it did and it’s surreal,” an emotional Maya said reflecting on her journey. “I don’t really have any words for it. Very surreal. I can’t believe it. Just coming here was surreal and then winning is on a whole other level.”

Maya’s next mission? More US junior golf tournaments. Each summer, Maya and her parents travel to the US from Abu Dhabi and she tees up in New England PGA junior tournaments. She has tried to qualify for the US Girls’ Junior three times.

In golf timing is everything, and Maya’s jaunt to the Augusta Masters this year linked in nicely with Ramadan, allowing her to take a little time off school. She dreams of competing in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur and was watching on this year ahead of the Masters as Rose Zhang triumphed.

“It was very exciting. Congratulations to Rose,” Maya said. “The last two holes were nail-biting for me. I can’t imagine how it was for Rose. I would love to play in that tournament.” With her tenacious perseverance, there is no reason why she herself cannot be teeing it up in Georgia once again.

Following her own success, Maya and her family stayed on to witness Jon Rahm’s famous victory at a stormy Augusta before enjoying some wellearned time with her extended family in Boston, while her friends and mentors looked on from the UAE.

“It is a great accomplishment for Maya and UAE golf to compete and win the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals at Augusta on the Sunday before The Masters,” Abdullah Alhashmi, ViceChariman of the Emirates Golf Club, told Golf Digest Middle East. “Maya is a graduate of the Future Falcons Programme where her golf journey started, and is another great example of talent that we have here in the UAE.

“Congratulations to Maya and her family. All of their hard work is paying off.”

Already an inspiration for others, Maya has some sage advice for those looking to follow in her footsteps: “Never stop trying. You can do it!”

While normal life may return with a bump with the school bell beckoning back in Abu Dhabi, Maya knows there will be plenty more tournaments and twists on this amazing trip.

Who knows where the journey will end up…