Corey Shaun tells us all about his chaotic journey from South America to South Africa as the DP World Tour rookie hunts precious Race to Dubai points at this week's Joburg Open.
"To start the year when I secured DP World Tour status at Q School, I knew it was going to be a tough year and I might not get into a lot of events and if I did it was going to be a lot of last-minute flights and alternate list decisions."
Those were the words of Corey Shaun when we spoke to him just over a month ago and, after getting another late entry into this week's Joburg Open, they continue to be true.
His journey to Houghton Golf Club this week - where he started as a reserve and is the penutimate player in the field - has seen him travel from Argentina but it has not been your standard trip with paperwork issues seeing him initially denied a flight before his clubs did not make it on another.
Sounds crazy? Don't take our word for it, here's the story from the man himself.
“I went to Argentina because I didn't get into the Investec South African Open Championship last week and when I looked at the entry list I was way out of the Joburg Open as well so I decided to play two Korn Ferry Tour events in Latin America. The travel from Kenya was going to be difficult but at least I'd have two events to play in.
“But as the week went on in Argentina I slowly started to realise that maybe I had a chance to get into the Joburg Open and on Sunday - the final round was cancelled at the 118 Visa Argentina Open presented by Marco, we had some weather issues and played 54 holes in the last two days – going into the that last round I knew that I was in.
“I was just kind of brainstorming in my head: How was I going to get here? What was I going to do?
“I finished the round, extended my Airbnb by one more night, and purchased a flight for Monday heading from Buenos Aires to Johannesburg with one stop in Sao Paulo, which was three hours to Sao Paulo and then nine to Johannesburg.
“But when I got to the airport I was denied boarding because I didn't have a yellow fever vaccine. Weeks earlier, I had seen I would have needed one to get from Kenya to South Africa so I went to a clinic in the Uniited States to try to attain it but they wouldn't give it to me due to some health concerns.
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“So they gave me an exemption letter but when I didn't get into the South African Open after the Magical Kenya Open presented by absa, I didn't really think about it.
“Then I needed the vaccine to get from Argentina to South Africa and they wouldn't accept the letter. So that was quite an expensive wasted ticket.
“A million thoughts then went through my head and I couldn't get into the Astara Chile Classic presented by Scotiabank on the Korn Ferry Tour as I had already withdrawn.
“Then I sppoke to the DP World Tour, who connected me with a doctor and he wrote me another letter. I then made sure that letter would be accepted and bought a second, even more expensive ticket.
“After all that I arrived in Johannesburg on Tuesday around lunchtime but the adventures didn't end as my golf bag never came. I went to baggage reclaim and they told me that the next flight coming in from Sao Paulo to Johannesburg would not arrive until Thursday afternoon.
“I talked to the Callaway representative out here and we arrranged a mix-matched set of clubs. Nothing is too close to what I play, different shafts and lengths and heads but it's close enough that I can kind of figure out what I'm doing.
“But when you're playing a big tournament like this, you don't want to feel like you're just close enough. For the practice round we tweaked the specs to get closer to what I was familiar with and it took some time.
“A couple of the clubs were too far away from what I was used to and after eiight holes I ran back to the driving range and made some changes and worked some stuff out and it got better as the day went on. At the start I didn't know where the ball was going to go and by the end at least I figured out what the clubs feel like.
“With all the nightmare of the not valid plane ticket and the lost golf bag, it made me a lot more tired than what I thought I was going to be. But I have the last tee time on Thursday luckily so I get to sleep in a little bit.
"It's just going to be a mentality of: things probably aren't going to go my way in every aspect tomorrow but hopefully I can stay mentally strong and tell myself that if things don't go right, it's not my clubs, and if things do go well it's all a bonus."
