BARRACUDA CHAMPIONSHIP

July 17, 2024

Beau Forest

Tahoe Mountain Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Beau, congratulations on Monday qualifying for your PGA TOUR debut at the Barracuda Championship. Talk about your excitement to be here.

BEAU FOREST: Yeah, it's kind of hard to put in words, honestly. It's something I've always dreamed of, and I've been chasing it for a while now. Working full-time at the same time, but I've been putting a lot of time and effort into playing tournaments, playing qualifiers, and yeah, so to have it happen, especially so close to home, is really special.

I'm going to have some family and friends coming to watch this week, and very excited. It's really a dream come true. Very excited for the week.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about your path to get here. Obviously you were a collegiate golfer. How many times have you tried to Monday qualify, things of that nature?

BEAU FOREST: Well, I played four years at University of the Pacific, walked on there. My coach there, Coach Cook, gave me an opportunity to walk on, and very thankful for that.

I turned pro about eight months ago now. I was playing for while as an amateur. I kind of lost track of how many Mondays I've played in. Probably about 10 to 15, right in that change. This is probably only like my third or fourth as a pro, though.

It's been quite a journey to get here. Working full-time and balancing golf has been a challenge, but my work, my boss, my whole team at work has been extremely supportive and has helped me to have the opportunity to compete and get here. I feel very blessed for that.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about what you're doing for work outside of golf?

BEAU FOREST: Yeah, so I'm doing software engineering. I work at Aruba, which is a Hewlett-Packard enterprise company, a subsidiary. We do basically networking equipment and solutions for enterprise companies.

Q. Bay Area?

BEAU FOREST: Roseville is the office site I work out of. I work mostly remotely, so I live in Redding, which is about two hours from Roseville, so most of the time I'm working remotely, but I'm in the office about once a week when I'm back home.

Q. Talk about your youth golf career in Redding and some of the courses you've played and some of the successes you've had along the way?

BEAU FOREST: Yeah, so Riverview Golf and Country Club is my home course. It has been since I was walking. I've been out there, I started playing junior golf out there at six.

I play a lot at Gold Hills and Tierra Oaks out there in Redding. I have a great support system out there. Riverview especially has been really good to me. There wasn't a lot of junior golf really in the Redding area, so had to travel a little bit more, Sacramento a lot, Bay Area a lot, and until really later in high school, I didn't do much. I played a lot, I guess, recreationally, but started to kind of get more into the competition.

Q. Did that play into you having to walk on to Pacific, the fact you didn't get much exposure up in Redding?

BEAU FOREST: Yeah, so I didn't have many tournament results to show when I was coming out of high school. I had pretty minimal tournament experience, no really good results, but my coach, Coach Cook at Pacific, I guess he saw some potential there and there was an opportunity, and gave me the chance to walk on, and it was really a special opportunity.

Not many coaches would have done that, so I'm very thankful for that.

Q. Have you had any close calls at Monday qualifiers before?

BEAU FOREST: Yeah, my closest was last year, also in this northern California area at the Fortinet. Missed it by one. That was a heartbreak.

I've had a couple other close calls. That was the closest. I've had some close calls.

I felt for a while like my game is where it needed to be to qualify. Just wanted to keep giving myself opportunities because I knew if I kept doing that, it would come.

Q. What was the extra edge that you had on Monday of this week to get into the field here?

BEAU FOREST: That's a good question. I've been on the road for a bit now. A couple weeks, which for a lot of these TOUR guys isn't very long, but for me it's felt like a long time, working on the road and traveling.

But my game has been in a good spot. I think it's better than it's ever been, which definitely helps. But honestly, I went into Monday, I was nervous. Monday qualifiers still definitely get me nervous. But for me, my faith is a big part of my life, and I've kind of just been going through some kind of tough stuff lately with some family and just some personal stuff, and I think it's really that brought me to a place of just kind of humility, I guess.

I think as golfers, it's always a struggle not to focus too much on the results. I think that on Monday, I got off to a rough start. I was 2-over through four holes, which is not the place you want to be in a Monday qualifier. Basically at that point you almost feel like it's over.

I just kind of took a step back and I just -- honestly, I said a prayer. I trusted in God. I knew the results weren't in my hands. I'm ultimately not in control. I can do what I can do, but if it's his plan for me to be here, then I'll be here. That's kind of the attitude I had the rest of the day.

There were definitely some ups and downs the rest of the round, but ultimately I think just that peace that I had there allowed me to play my best, and honestly when it got to the last hole, I had a putt that I knew probably would make a difference either getting in or getting into a playoff, whatever.

Over that putt I just kind of had a peace -- if it goes in, great, that's his plan. If not, I'm okay with that. I think that was really the difference for me, I think, versus before, kind of the nerves and struggling with results. I was able to let go of that.

Q. You said you have some friends and family coming down here. You have a big community supporting you?

BEAU FOREST: Yeah, my mom is going to be here for sure. I know that. She was my first call. She was my first ticket that I got when we get the tickets to give out. So I know she'll be here.

I have a lot of family and friends in Redding that are going to try to make it. I'm not sure how many are going to be able to, but I'm sure get a pretty good crowd out there. It's not too long of a drive over here. A lot of people from my home course, some of my friends from high school, maybe some of my old teammates from college, too. Definitely excited for that.

Q. Going back to your job and the balance of trying to qualify and practice and try and make it to a TOUR event, what's your practice schedule and how do you balance your full-time job with trying to go to the range and get a few rounds in?

BEAU FOREST: Yeah, it's difficult. Summertime is a little bit easier because the days are longer. Wintertime it's tough because the daylight hours are essentially the working hours. Pretty much work 9:00 to 5:00 hours typically, so a lot of times it's going out to the range after work getting as much time as I can, playing a few holes if I can.

With the nature of my work, it's a little bit variable. Sometimes projects are intense and there's a lot going on. Sometimes it's a little easier.

Basically I'm doing what I can. But I usually can get out for a decent amount of practice, enough to where I can at least maintain for the most part, which is good.

Like I mentioned earlier, my job, my boss especially, has been really understanding and supportive. As long as I get my work done, he allows me some flexibility.

Q. Do you have to take any PTO?

BEAU FOREST: This week I am. This is some of the first PTO I've used this year. Typically I'll work long days during the tournaments to make up the hours I miss so I don't burn through it all, but I figured this would be a good week to use some.

Q. Software engineering, how did you make that decision to have that be your career path?

BEAU FOREST: Well, prior to college I didn't have any experience with that, but it seemed like something I'd be interested in. I was good kind of in the areas that would be required for software engineering. I kind of said, that looks like fun, I think I'd be good at that. So I did computer science. That was my bachelor's, and I did engineering management for my masters. It was a really good fit for software engineering, especially at a networking company like I'm working at now.

It was kind of a guess, but it worked out well, and I really enjoy it. I like getting out here and competing. I think this is probably my true passion.

But I really enjoy my job and what I do.

Q. Those who are less familiar with your game, where would you say your strong suits are, off the tee, short game, putting?

BEAU FOREST: Well, I would say my iron game has always been a strength of my game. Mid-irons has always been probably my best area. I'm really working a lot on strengthening driving and putting. That's been my focus lately and honestly it's helped me get to where I am now, I think. I can hit the ball pretty far, but I used to be kind of a little crooked off the tee, but I've really reined that in, which has helped a lot.

But I'd say mid-irons are still the strength of my game. That's kind of bread and butter for me.

Q. Any players you model your game after on TOUR?

BEAU FOREST: There's a lot. Obviously I grew up watching Tiger, like everybody my age. Tiger was always a huge inspiration for me and still is.

I really liked watching Dustin Johnson a lot growing up. He and I are similar height, so I liked looking at his swing and watching him play.

There's a lot. Ben Crane has been a guy, I met him actually at a Monday qualifier last year, and he's mentored me really over the last few months, which has been a huge help. Getting insight from a multiple-time TOUR winner has been amazing. He and I have a little bit different games, but he's really helped me develop my game and understand where I need to improve and where my strengths are and where to build.

I would say probably those three have been the biggest influence, but there's a lot of guys. I love watching -- Scottie Scheffler recently, obviously he's not that much older than I am. I think he's only a year or two older than I am. But for me as a Christian, seeing what he's doing has been really inspiring to me. Lots of guys, but I'd say those are the main ones.

Q. Have you been able to reach out to Ben since Monday?

BEAU FOREST: I have, yeah.

Q. Any advice for this week?

BEAU FOREST: Yep, I called him right after I qualified. He was very excited for me and gave me some good advice about how to go about the practice round and the week.

Obviously I went to the AT&T Pro-Am one time. I watched one day. So this is really my first time besides that even at a TOUR event even as a spectator. Lots of new stuff for me, so it was really valuable to have that guidance on how to go about things and where to spend my time and how to handle all that.

Q. What Monday Q did you meet Ben at?

BEAU FOREST: I believe it was -- I'll need to think about that. It was the Worldwide Technologies. It was in San Diego and it was for the tournament in Mexico.