Golf’s Most Traveled Man

Since the start of Q-school last October, golf’s most traveled man, Corey Shaun, has flown nearly 100,000 miles chasing events on the DP World Tour and Korn Ferry Tour. That is the equivalent of five trips around the world in just under six months. His adventure continued this week, and it included an expensive one-way ticket he couldn’t use, another exorbitant last-minute ticket, and a lost set of clubs. 

In October, Shaun, a former UCLA Bruin, began the Q-school gauntlet. With no status on any major tour, he signed up for both the DP World Tour and PGA Tour Q-school. As he headed to Spain, he had no idea what travel adventure lay ahead. He crossed the ocean from Europe to the U.S. four times during Q-school, and advanced through a total of six stages. He earned both KFT and DP World Tour status. 

Since October of last year, Shaun has played events on five continents, in nine countries, and across 14 different time zones. I spoke with Shaun as he headed for his 10th country, South Africa, after finishing T65 at the Argentina Open on the Korn Ferry Tour. 

On Sunday night, he received a call from the DP World Tour letting him know that he was in the event in South Africa. There was only one problem: he didn’t think he would get into that event, so he had already booked travel plans to Chile for the next KFT event. 

Shaun has made four of six cuts on the DPWT this season, and with bigger purses, more world ranking points, and a good start to the season, it made sense to figure out how to get to South Africa. He had no idea how frustrating that decision would be.

First, Shaun purchased a one-way ticket to Johannesburg, which set him back $1300. Then, he learned that South Africa requires a negative test for Yellow Fever from certain countries, Argentina included. Luckily, a local doctor wrote a letter exempting him from the test. That is the good news. 

The bad news was that as he tried to board the plane, the airline wouldn’t accept the letter. He pleaded with them but to no avail. The flight took off without him, and $1300 was gone. 

Shaun refused to give up. He contacted the DP World Tour, and their doctor sent another exemption letter. This time, the airline accepted it. Now, he just needed to purchase another ticket, which cost him $1700. Having already spent $3000 on plane tickets, Shaun spent another $500 to cancel his Airbnb in Chile. 

He used the second ticket and arrived in South Africa on Monday. Unfortunately, his Callaway clubs did not. The news got worse when the airline informed him there wouldn’t be another flight from Argentina until Thursday. 

Shaun will play the first round (at least) with borrowed clubs. A South African Callaway rep is working to put together a set for the 28-year-old. He hopes there is a big payoff at the end of this great adventure. What a story it would be. 

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