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As many of the world’s best players make the breezy jaunt from Bay Hill to Ponte Vedra Beach this week, spare a thought for professional golf’s dreamers.
Corey Shaun is one of those.
Desperate to compete on the PGA Tour’s ‘Florida Swing’ one day, the 28-year-old American is spending his life jetting across every inhabited continent to keep his dream alive.
Indeed, since claiming the novelty of status on both the DP World Tour and Korn Ferry Tour via two Q Schools last October, Shaun has established himself as golf’s most travelled man.
“Stress levels are pretty high to be honest,” he tells bunkered.co.uk before embarking on perhaps his wildest adventure yet from Argentina to South Africa. And no wonder.
“It’s hard from my Q School category to definitively get into DP World Tour events so many times I’m booking last minute flights for high prices,” he says. “I just constantly check flights and my position on the entry lists and try to get really good at predicting where I’ll end up.”
It’s not quite throwing a pin onto a map and seeing where he will go next, but it’s not far off on a hectic five-month run that has seen Shaun fly almost 100,000 miles and span ten different countries in search of somewhere to play.
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Before finishing in a tie for 65th at the Argentina Open on the Korn Ferry Tour, it became apparent that there would be a place for Shaun in the following week’s Joburg Open.
The logistical nightmare was already set though, as Shaun had been convinced he wouldn’t get in and had instead made alternative travel arrangements to play the next Korn Ferry Tour event in Chile.
When he received the phone call from the DP World Tour on the Sunday night confirming his place in the field, Shaun bought a one-way ticket to Johannesburg with world ranking points and a bigger prize purse in mind.
The first setback was that Shaun couldn’t board the plane. He had been aware that South Africa required a negative test for Yellow Fever from certain countries, but his letter obtained from a doctor was rejected at the gate.
Denied boarding, Shaun realised he couldn’t get into the Chile Classic either as he had already withdrawn. He spent $500 cancelling his AirBnB in Santiago and then contacted the DP World Tour medical team, who produced an exemption letter that was belatedly accepted by border control.
From Buenos Aires to Johannesburg (via a stop in Sao Paulo), Shaun was away. But his clubs weren’t.
Like a scene from a tragicomedy, his Callaway bag had been left behind in Argentina with no way of getting to him before the start of Thursday’s first round.
And so, with borrowed clubs and weary eyes, Shaun missed the cut in Johannesburg, missed out on a fee to cover his costs, and boarded his next adventure.
Sometimes, though, Shaun doesn’t even make it inside the ropes at all.
After globetrotting from DP World Tour Q School in Spain back home to California and then down to Australia and back Stateside again for the second stage of PGA Tour Q School, he pitched up in the Middle East as an alternate at the Ras Al-Khaimah Championship, but failed to get a tee time.
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“That was pretty disheartening,” he says. “It’s really tough to practice on site not knowing if you’re going to play because it feels like a mental drain of like, ‘why am I practicing for something that won’t happen?’”
Not that there was any time to complain about it, though. Shaun currently has Category 18 exemption status on the DP World Tour which only gets him into a limited number of events, so he trots the globe seeking an easier life via a higher category ranking.
“The next week I was first alternate for Bahrain,” he says, “and fully expected not to get in again, but I ended up getting in Thursday morning and actually finished T38.”
Shaun’s commitment to the cause comes at a time when many of his compatriots on the PGA Tour have passports gathering dust as they cash in on the lucrative events on home soil.
“I haven’t really felt burned out yet,” he says. “To be honest, when I’m on the road I do get stressed about tournaments and good or bad play, but then I go home and I just feel bored.
“Breaks are nice and I do look forward to them but I’m also trying to take advantage of every opportunity I’m given.”
Even pro golfers as resilient as Shaun aren’t invincible, though.
He concedes that he arrived in the paradise of Mauritius in December on the back of a “huge emotional and mental comedown” of seven weeks on the road, punctured by failure to claim a full PGA Tour card. The heavily fatigued American was a world away – never mind a few time zones – and so inadvertently flirted with disqualification.
“I was so zoned out that week that I confused my tee time for ten minutes later than it was,” he says. “I realised about three minutes before my actual tee time.”
Somehow, Shaun mustered his best DP World Tour finish to date, a tie for ninth as he played on empty. He has made four of his seven cuts since claiming conditional status last October and sees the European circuit as a pathway to what, in some ways, would be a more comfortable life.
“I don’t plan on splitting tours full time and I’d ideally like to settle down and play as many as I can on the DP World Tour,” Shaun adds. “It’s a lot of travel and I’m well aware of that but it’s got easier.
“My end goal is to compete on the highest level and make it to the PGA Tour. I’m thrilled to play on the DP World Tour but those ten cards at the end of the year are really exciting.
“I’m fully aware with where my status is at, that’s kind of a long shot this year. So I just want to continue to improve, try to keep my card, and become a better, more prepared player.”
