Now she is in Saudi Arabia after receiving an invite to compete in the Aramco Team Series finale at Riyadh Golf Course as the youngest amateur at the first ever professional golf event in the Kingdom’s capital.

Golf Digest Middle East caught up with Maya, her father Stephen, and coach (and caddie this week) Yasin Ali, the head professional instructor at JA Resort and Golf in Dubai, following some practice holes with Minjee Lee and as they awaited to hear the draw on Wednesday evening and discover which team the 13-year-old will be playing for Friday and Saturday.

May with Minjee Lee. Supplied

“Augusta was amazing, and we got to hang around to watch the players play the Masters on the weekend,” she said. “Following that, we headed back up north to practise in cooler weather and kind of try to stay locally and compete in a few events around New England so I could stay in a community. It accumulated when I won the New England PGA Player of the Year award.

“I was moved up from the 13-and-under group as we decided it was the best way to go and gain experience.”

“Yes, these were proper events, minimum of 36 holes, multiple days, no caddies and no spectators,” added Stephen. “I had to wait at the clubhouse as we were not allowed out on course. So she was literally on her own out there.”

Despite a whirlwind year, Maya’s career is still in its very early stages, and she has to concentrate on school studies, too.

“I started two years ago in seventh grade with the US Performance Academy, which is basically an online school, which is great to help balance my school and golf,” she explained. “You pretty much roll out of bed, go to the computer and you are at school, then afterwards I go to the golf course or range. It gives me more time and more leeway. If, say, I had a tournament in the middle of the week, I wouldn’t do any school during the event, but I would do more before and after to keep up. Just like I am doing this week in Riyadh.”

Dad adds: “The USPA virtual school system is something we wouldn’t have even considered until Covid came around. But it has been around for a lot longer than that, and was set up by a bunch of Olympic athletes, to help others who maybe have to go to Switzerland for skiing or Australia for sailing. So it is great for young kids who want to pursue their athletic ability but also combine it with their schooling.”

Covid did bring other issues, however, and the family kitted out one of the rooms with a hitting net, cage to keep the windows safe, and a SkyTrack system.

“We jerry-rigged all this ourselves and attached a monitor so it was like playing on the course when we were stuck at home,” explained Stephen.

Coach Yasin has been a vital cog in Maya’s development, both online and in person when they get the chance to meet up, like in Riyadh this week.

“It is great doing virtual work with Coach, but it is always better to meet in person, so he can help me with my swing,” Maya said. “He is also a great caddie so I am thrilled he will be with me out on the course this week. He really helps out with the technical stuff in his head, then tells me the club and shot. It helps keep me calm, and when I am calm, I play much better.”

Stephen added: “I have played a lot of sports over the years, and I have never seen as great a coach as he is on a one-to-one basis. You see it in his personality — very warm, friendly, he knows when to push and when to back off.”

When the draft was finally made on Wednesday evening, Maya learnt her playing partners — captain Pauline Roussin, the French star who claimed the ATS Singapore Individual title. They will be joined by Linnea Johansson and Marta Sanz Barrio for the Friday and Saturday team competition before the final day of individual competition on Sunday.

“It is exciting to now know who my captain will be and I can’t wait to get out on the course with my team,” Maya concluded.

The post UAE teen Maya making history at Aramco Team Series finale in Riyadh appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

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 fi ction from the mind of a Hollywood feel good 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 fi ve 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 diff erent 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.

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

“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 fi eld. “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 proams, as well as Thomas Pieters, Tommy Fleetwood and Robert MacIntyre.

Maya Palanza Gaudin and family with Rory Mcilroy. David Cannon

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 refl ecting 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.

A young(er) Maya in Abu Dhabi. Supplied

Following her own success, Maya and her family stayed on to witness Jon Rahm’s famous victory at a stormy Augusta before enjoying some well-earned 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…

The post The UAE’s Maya Palanza Gaudin Masters new heights appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

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.

The post Drive, Chip and Putt competitor’s amazing life story continues with victory at Augusta appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Thanks to her impressive win, Gaudin will now compete in the US National Finals which will be played at Augusta National during Masters week (April 6-9).

The Abu Dhabi-based 12-year-old was one of the thousands of junior golfers who competed in the Drive Chip & Putt series across North America and is one of 40 girls and 40 boys to qualify for the Augusta National event.

Gaudin, who has lived in the UAE since she was a baby, is a member of the Emirates Golf Federation and regularly competes in junior golf competitions across the UAE and internationally. Earlier this year, she won first place in the US Kids European Championship played in Scotland with 72, 74, 74 four-over winning score. Maya also won the 2021 Woman’s Club Championship at Yas Links Abu Dhabi.

You may also like:
Golf Digest Middle East presents Oktoberfest 2022
Chiara Noja secures LET card for 2023
Laklalech becomes first Arab to win on LET
Should the Presidents Cup bring in the LPGA players
Justin Thomas is a hard ‘no’ on PGA Tour v LIV Golf
Greg Norman shut out of Shootout
Adam Scott on why he shunned LIV Golf
LOOK: The latest LIV Golf standings after Chicago
Five ways to improve the Presidents Cup
Every player at the 2022 Presidents Cup ranked and rated
Davis Love finds his voice — thanks to LIV
WATCH: LIV Golf highlights from Chicago
WATCH: Willett’s three-putt to lose Fortinet
Pay day in Chicago: Who won what at LIV Golf?
Loud and proud crowd the difference at Presidents Cup
WATCH: Bryson gets in a tangle at  Chicago LIV event
Get your FREE September edition of Golf Digest Middle East here

The post UAE’s Maya Palanza Gaudin heading to the Masters appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Matt Smith
The conveyor belt of young UAE-based talent continues to roll as Abu Dhabi’s Maya Palanza Gaudin took the title at the US Kids European Championship (Girls, 12-years-old Category) at The Glen Golf Club, North Berwick, outside Edinburgh, Scotland.

Born in Ethiopia, the 12-year-old, who has lived in the UAE capital with her parents and younger sister for 10 years, plays off a 2.7 handicap and was the 2021 Ladies champion at Yas Links Golf Club, Abu Dhabi.

In typically Scottish weather — cold, damp and windy — Maya prevailed over a tough course thanks to a determined display.

She shot 72, 74, 74 for a four-over total of 220 played over the 4,507 yards, par 72 layout, to win by four strokes.

The next international event on Maya’s schedule is the US Kids Golf World Championships in July at Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina, in the US.

You might also like
All the latest news from around the UAE and beyond
Bronte Law triumphs in London
WATCH: Highlights from Day 3
Watch action from Day 2 at Aramco
Davis sizzles in London
Highlights from Day 1 of Aramco Team Series — London
Super Swedes lead the way in Aramco Team Series
Bringner and Hall among leaders at Aramco Team Series
Familiar faces as Aramco Team captains make picks
Dubai’s Chiara forced out of Aramco London
Bronte Law calls for level playing field

The post Abu Dhabi-based 12-year-old Maya wins title in Scotland appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.