Maya Palanza Gaudin had an amazing story before she set foot on Augusta National Golf Club on Sunday and won the Girls 12-13 Division of the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals.

As a newborn in her native Ethiopia, Maya was in grave danger when her biological mother died shortly after childbirth. No woman in her Southern Ethiopian village, near the Kenyan border, was lactating to be able to breastfeed Maya.

So, her father and uncles carried Maya on their backs and walked 55 miles to the safety of the nearest hospital. Once Maya was nourished and safe, her father produced the most unselfish act of love and put her up for adoption. That was her best chance at a good life.

The couple who took Maya into their lives were a golf-loving couple from New England who have been based in Abu Dhabi since Maya was 2. Maya’s surrogate father, Stephen Gaudin, was an overseas-based agent for the FBI who is now retired, and her mother, Cassandra, works in the American embassy in Abu Dhabi.

The pair are lifelong golfers, having met at a golf outing at Cape Cod, and introduced Maya to the game at age 5.

“The way I see it, Maya’s birth mom gave her life [and] Maya’s 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 of golf,” Cassandra told Masters.com.

Maya Palanza Gaudin reacts to her putt on the 18th green in the Drive, Chip and Putt. David Cannon

Maya’s talents on the course were quickly evident, so Stephen and Cassandra invested time and money into their daughter’s passion. (Maya’s sister, Willa, is also adopted and loves the game of golf.) Maya has won the junior club championship at Yas Links in Abu Dhabi, where she plays, and which hosts the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship on the DP World Tour.

Through the connection with Yas Links, she has teed it up with Rory McIlroy in DP World Tour pro-ams, as well as Thomas Pieters and Robert MacIntyre. The elite pros know Maya so well by now that, when her parents were looking for her at Yas Links in January, 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.”

??? Congratulations Maya https://t.co/Op03nMkL3f

— Rory McIlroy (@McIlroyRory) April 2, 2023

Before the 2023 Drive, Chip and Putt Finals, Maya had enjoyed junior golf success overseas. She won a major junior tournament in India several years ago before stepping up in Europe and claiming the U.S. Kids European Championship in Scotland last year. “I got to play at St. Andrews afterwards,” Maya said. “We drove up there. It’s a close second to this course [Augusta].”

But there was one gaping hole in her junior résumé. She wanted to compete in the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals at Augusta National on Sunday before Masters week, a competition in its ninth year in 2023. Her absence from the National Finals was not for a lack of trying.

“Six times [I tried to qualify], but it would’ve been seven with the COVID year,” a proud Maya said after her victory.

Maya Palanza Gaudin is presented with the Girls 12-13 trophy by Jordan Spieth. David Cannon

Participants compete in three skills (Drive, Chip and Putt) and hit three shots per skill for a total of nine shots. With 26 points, Maya won the Girls 12-13 years category by four points. Narah Hope Kim, a local from Georgia, and Ruihan Kendria Wang, from Washington, were tied second.

Naturally, with her passion for golf and her backstory, Maya was emotional. She said it was a miracle she was even alive, let alone playing golf. “It probably wasn’t supposed to happen, but it did and it’s surreal. I don’t really have any words for it,” she said. “[It’s] very surreal. I can’t believe it. Just coming here was surreal and then winning is on a whole ‘nother level.”

The next step for Maya is obvious—compete more in U.S. junior golf tournaments. Each summer, Maya and her parents travel to the U.S. and she tees up in New England PGA junior tournaments. She has tried to qualify for the U.S. Girls’ Junior three times. Eventually, Maya dreams of competing in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. She watched eagerly this weekend as American Rose Zhang, the superstar amateur from Stanford, won the event.

“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 credentials and perseverance, all signs point to Maya potentially securing a return to Augusta National.

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By Ryan Herrington
When Augusta National Golf Club opens again on Oct. 16, it will do so under new leadership. Billy Payne, chairman of the club and the Masters Tournament since May 2006, announced on Wednesday that he will retire from the role this fall.

Succeeding Payne will be Fred Ridley, a former USGA president who has served most recently as the chairman of the Competition Committees for the Masters.

During his tenure, Payne, 69, helped create the Asia-Pacific Amateur, Latin America Amateur and the Drive, Chip and Putt Championship in an effort to extend the game’s reach to new, broader audiences. He also oversaw the expansion of the club’s physical footprint, but said now was “the right moment to step down.”

“The privilege I experienced serving as chairman of Augusta National and the Masters was far greater than I could have ever imagined,” Payne said in a release. “Just as nothing can prepare you for the unique responsibilities and important decisions that come with this position, it is equally impossible to anticipate the many joys and, most importantly, the wonderful friendships that are the ultimate reward of service.”

Ridley, 65, will be the seventh man to hold the position of club and tournament chairman. His predecessors include Augusta National co-founder Clifford Roberts (1933-’77), Bill Lane (1977-’80), Hord Hardin (1980-’91), Jack Stephens (1991-’98), Hootie Johnson (1998-2006) and Payne.

“I am now proud to call upon my good friend Fred Ridley to lead Augusta National and the Masters to a future that I am confident will hold new promise, while always being faithful to the principles of Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts,” Payne said. “Fred will be an excellent chairman who will serve with my complete and enthusiastic support.”

A Florida native who lives in Tampa, Ridley works as a business lawyer and partner at Foley & Lardner LLP, where he serves as national chair of the firm’s real estate practice. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Florida and his law degree from Stetson University.

Ridley has deep ties to the game as both an accomplished player and an administrator. During his competitive career, Ridley won the 1975 U.S. Amateur, played on the 1976 U.S. World Amateur team and was on the 1977 U.S. Walker Cup squad. He is the last U.S. Amateur champion to have not turned professional. Ridley also captained the American Walker Cup team in 1987 and 1989, and the 2010 U.S. World Amateur Team.

Beginning in 1994, Ridley served as a member of the USGA Executive Committee and was elected the association’s president in 2004-’05. After finishing his tenure with the governing body, he became more involved at Augusta National, taking over as chairman of the Masters competition committee in 2011.

Ridley’s connection to the tournament goes back to 1976, when he made the first of his three appearances as a competitor. That year he met Roberts, beginning a lineage in which he has been acquainted with every chairman in club history. Ridley, however, will be the first chairman to have played in the Masters.

On Ridley’s short-term radar: the potential expansion of Augusta National’s 13th hole. A letter from the president of neighboring Augusta Country Club sent to its club members earlier this month revealed that ANGC had purchased land just behind Augusta National’s 12th green and 13th tee. Speculation is that Augusta National might build a new tee box that would lengthen the par-5 13th, which plays among the easiest holes during tournament week.

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