His Playfulness Doesn't Hide Talent

CHASKA, Minn. Álvaro Quirós was done kidding around on the practice range. He had thrown tees at his caddy and bounced a golf ball off his heel soccer style, and he was ready to be serious. He whipped his driver back in a wide arc and lashed it downward, so fast the club head blurred into invisibility. A ball jetted upward with a metallic spat and climbed towards the clouds. Behind him, an awed exhalation came from the crowd as the ball ascended into the distance toward a far parking lot.

"That is outta sight," a spectator said. "I mean, literally, I can't see the ball."

"Look at that," another said. "Did he just hit a car?"

The view of Quirós driving a golf ball at the PGA Championship is one of the few things worth dragging your eyes away from Tiger Woods for. It doesn't matter what the 26-year-old Spaniard with the name like a fancy liquor shoots, it's worth it just to watch him try to throw knock out punches at the 7,674-yard Hazeltine course, and court catastrophe. Quirós is the longest hitter in the world at the moment, averaging 316 yards off the tee, and he combines elastic power with a whimsicality that makes him doubly easy on the eyes. During a practice round earlier this week, the 6-foot-3 Spaniard, who has quills of jet black hair and fanciful sideburns that look like thin drippings of ink along his cheekbones, reached every single one of the par 5s in two and went six under par in just five holes. A feat which he joked was a waste of fine golf. "I started too good to be honest," he said. "Not a good sign. I spent all the birdies in the practice round."

Quirós doesn't just play golf, he really plays it -- as if it's fun. The son of a gardener from Cadiz, he was so poor growing up that his family couldn't afford a television feed, so he had never seen most American golf courses before this season even on a screen. So far he has dealt with both some fast success and some setbacks with a sense of unspoiled enjoyment. Follow the sound of laughter, that's where you'll find him. He's so endowed with both good humor and ability that caddie Dave McNeilly chose to work with him despite having an offer from two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen. "Maybe he is looking for excitement," Quirós said this spring, when McNeilly agreed to take him on. "And it is definitely exciting with me because sometimes he visits all the bushes on the golf course and sees part of the golf course he never would with Retief Goosen."

Quirós won three tournaments on the European Tour between 2007-2008 to rise to No. 37 in the world rankings, and he caused an immediate buzz when he appeared in his first PGA Tour events in Florida this spring. At a tournament in Palm Harbor, Florida in March, he flew over the net at the back of the range -- and the lake behind it, too, a feat which a range attendant called "sick." Though he missed the cut in the three previous major championships this season, in part because he was so unfamiliar with the courses, he recently shook off a case of homesickness and began to make a mark. He finished 15th last week at the Bridgestone Invitational, and through two rounds of 69-76 at Hazeltine, he stood in a tie for 26th place.

"He's a very nice player, a wonderful character," says his friend Sergio García. "He's always smiling. He's got a lot of energy, and if he hits it somehow straight, as far as he hits it, you know, he can really play the game of golf. He hits it so far and he really doesn't look like he's hitting it that hard. I mean, he obviously gets a lot of swing speed and club-head speed, but when you look at it, it's like you don't see a guy that is just going full at it. So it's impressive to see. He's get a great ball flight on it, so hopefully he can keep it going."

Quirós has remained in contention in the PGA despite a series of offsetting feats and disasters. His adventures included hitting the ball under a TV tower on the 518-yard 12th hole Friday for a bogey. And a magnificent driver-driver combination to reach the 606-yard 11th hole for a birdie on Thursday, when he ran his ball up on the green just as Woods and Padraig Harrington were putting, which became the talk of the tournament.

Quirós calculated he had about 265 meters to the front of the green, when he pulled out his driver. The putting surface was so far away he didn't realize Woods, Harrington and Rich Beem were there. "Where I was, I can't even see them," he said. The ball launched perfectly, soared upward into a multi-tiered ascent, and then settled down on the neck and dribbled up to the green. Woods, Harrington and Beam swiveled and stared at it, looks of admiration dawning on their faces.

Beem's first thought was "Holy [expletive]," he said. Harrington turned to Woods and cracked a joke to the effect of, "I have that in my bag, too. I just don't take it out."

"You know how big a hit that is?" Woods said later, appreciatively. "Six oh six, into the wind. Tee shot's uphill. Yeah."

The men finished their putts, and moved on as Quirós came up the fairway. The Spaniard ducked under the ropes and jogged over to them to express his contrition. Woods, already concentrating on his next shot, barely glanced at him, but Harrington told him, "Good shot." Quirós then returned to the green, where he marked his ball to applause. One wit in the gallery yelled out, "Playing through!" to laughter.

"Nothing to apologize for," Woods said later. "I mean, that's just stupid long, isn't it? To hit it that far into the wind is just phenomenal. It's just absolutely phenomenal." Woods paused, and then a hit of envy crept into his voice. " I used to be able to move the ball," he said. "Not anymore. I just plod my way around and shoot 67."

On Friday as Quirós warmed up for his second round on the practice tee, he clowned and jabbered with every player on the row near him. As he hit a few wedges, he turned and intentionally sprayed Camilo Villegas with divots. Villegas brushed dirt from the front of his shirt, giggling. After a minute or so, Woods moved into an open slot on the other side of Quirós and began to hit balls. Not intimidated, Quirós started chattering happily at Woods, too. "I apologize to you yesterday, but you never turn your head," he said. He imitated Woods's concentrated stare on the golf course. Woods, despite himself, grinned. But a few seconds later he went back to work, practicing with an almost hypnotic intensity, working through the clubs in his bag. As the two men struck balls side by side, you couldn't help wondering who this promising Spaniard might turn out to be, if he laughed just a little less, and learned a little more control.

"I think if somebody of this tour can hit it always straight, he would be the next Tiger Woods or Nicklaus," Quirós said.