Quiros still trying to learn tricks of Augusta National

Augusta National is the most familiar course to many golfers in the world, so imagine being a golfer good enough to qualify for the Masters Tournament but not having the vaguest idea what the course looks like.

"Unfortunately, I've never seen anything from Augusta before I flew in 2009," said Alvaro Quiros, of Spain. "Everybody was speaking such a good things about Augusta that I was expecting a golf course in a different design ... not better, not worse, something different."

Quiros grew up in a humble home in Guadiro, Spain, and couldn't afford to pay for the television service to get the Masters broadcast.

"This is why I've never seen a golf tournament, really, from TV," he said. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing."

Augusta National Golf Club is not a course that rewards someone going in blind, even someone with prodigious power such as Quiros. He saw the yardages on the back-nine par 5s and believed they could be easily overpowered.

"I heard that Seve (Ballesteros) used to say that as closest to the green, it's better ...," Quiros said of the two-time Masters champion. "In my case, as close to the green is not the best thing, because I don't have his hands. He has an artist's hands. I'm more of a bricklayer ... This is why I hit the ball that long. I'm not as skillful.

"I have length to hit the green in two, but sometimes it's not worth it. You're on the green and you cannot even make four. These kind of things are not clever things, I think. They are just ambitious, I'm too much ambitious about making three."

That reality was an eye-opening experience for Quiros at Augusta. He traces his downfall to a practice round with fellow Spaniards Jose Maria Olazabal and Miguel Angel Jimenez. On the 13th, his approach hit the green but released into the deep swale over the back left.

"Like a floppy shot style, it's not that difficult," he said of his recovery shot.

A few days later in the first round, his 8-iron approach hit the middle of the green but once again released into the same spot. This time, however, the grass was cut much tighter, and his flop shot was not an option. Forced to putt, he hit too hard and into the creek and made bogey.

"They don't help me a lot there," he said of Olazabal and Jimenez. "They never told me on 13 left side I cannot chip on the Thursday."

Last year, Quiros was 3-under in the second round and in the top 20 when again No. 13 derailed him. He pulled his drive into the creek and made double bogey, followed with four consecutive bogeys to miss the cut again.

"These are the kind of things that Augusta teach you -- even with an 8iron, you have to be careful," he said. "It's something that you have to learn. It doesn't matter if Olazabal, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods tells you, 'This is not the way to be.' Because at the end, you have to really punish yourself. You have to miss and then say, hey, I'm not going to come here again and this is why.

"Olazabal, he love it. Obviously he love it. And I love, too, because like I said, it's a golf course that push you into the limit. Every single shot has a purpose and every single shot to the green has another purpose, and this is something that you have to learn."

With a roller-coaster victory already this year in Dubai, Quiros returns to the Masters with a new mindset and humble ambitions to finally play on the weekend.

"The people who play good in Augusta, they said that they are very passionate and obviously ambitious, but in the proper time, and this is what I think I have to improve, my character," he said.

The most charismatic Spanish golfer this side of Ballesteros was never much of a Seve fan. Quiros was just a few months old when Ballesteros won his last Masters in 1983. He was 5 when Ballesteros won his fifth and final major at the 1988 British Open at Royal Lytham & St. Annes. He was 12 and just learning the game when Ballesteros won his 50th and final European Tour event at the 1995 Spanish Open.

"I really don't know how big was Seve, unfortunately," Quiros said. "But I live very well Olazabal's second win in the Masters (1999). This is why probably Olazabal could be more kind of an idol for me than Seve, because I live more his career."

Quiros was a teenager playing with a friend on his home public course, La Canada, when he met Olazabal. They were on the third tee when the club pro raced up and told them to get out of the way and make room for the club's guest.

"It was Olazabal -- imagine!" Quiros said.

Olazabal hit his driver down the fairway, then turned to the boys and said, "Come on, hit the ball."

"We were watching each other, and I said, 'He's speaking with us,' " Quiros said. "Imagine, for us. I cannot even put the ball in the tee, I was shaking. This was the first time I ever met Olazabal."

A few years later, a much taller Quiros ran into Olazabal in a hotel lobby where they both were playing in the Spanish Open and reminded his hero of the six holes they played together years before. Olazabal's eyes grew wide.

"How much did you grow up?" he asked.

Out of all the majors, Quiros believes he's best suited to someday win the Masters. He hopes to develop some of the gifts of his green-jacketed Spanish brethren.

"Olazabal, he's like a fish in the sea, he's perfect over here," Quiros said. "He love the shape of the greens, the greens, so quick. ... Seve was special for many reasons. He played golf in a different way than the rest of the field. But at the same time, he was able to hit shots that nobody can hit it. This is something that you have or you don't have it. Nobody is going to teach you to be Seve.

"So in my case, I know that I have the length and I know that I have a good feeling around the greens but I am not the typical example of, how could I say, between 80 and 120 meters. This is why my wish to improve is big. This is what makes me feel that I can do something good or something better in the future."

Reach Scott Michaux at (706) 823-3219 orscott.michaux@augustachronicle.com.