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WGC CADILLAC CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 9, 2011Alvaro QuirosMIAMI, FLORIDA GORDON SIMPSON: Welcome, Alvaro. It's been a good start to the season for you, winning in Dubai already this year, 21st in the world, and No. 3 on The Race to Dubai. So the next target would be one of these World Golf Championships I would think. ALVARO QUIROS: Well, I would say the next target is winning everything. (Laughter) Anything means any one of the next one. Obviously I'm playing well and I was very lucky to win in Dubai. As you said, 21st in the world, this is a good thing. GORDON SIMPSON: And obviously Top-20 could be a possibility this week. ALVARO QUIROS: Yeah, if I play well, yes, why not. Last year I finished eighth or sixth if I'm not wrong. I think finishing in the top 5 will move three spots, so it would be a good improvement. GORDON SIMPSON: Well you have to catch up on Kaymer and Westwood and Donald and McDowell, now in the top four of the world. ALVARO QUIROS: I would like to be in this spot but to be honest I'm a little bit further away from them. I have further targets than them but I'm happy to be where I am. Q. What is your target? ALVARO QUIROS: You mean in this week or in general? Q. In general. ALVARO QUIROS: Well, I would like to finish the year at least Top-25 of the world because the last two years, I've been playing with the 21st, 25th at the beginning of the season, and then after the season, finishing again in the 40. So I would like to be more consistent in my game to Top-25. Q. The consistency seems to be the one thing that's been lacking since you first came on TOUR. Are you getting closer to getting that settled? ALVARO QUIROS: Well, I mean, consistent to be shooting every single round of golf 70, well, 70 or 69 to be Top-20 of the world is not easy. I mean, my consistent is to shoot 71, 72 and finishing in the Top-50 of the world; I think it's not that bad. And obviously everybody wants to improve, but in my case, I'm on the correct way I think to improve the consistence, as you said. But I don't know what it means. I don't know if it's a mental thing or if technique or just wait until it comes. So this is what I'm doing, just waiting to see what change. (Smiling broadly). Q. What is your schedule going to be to go into the Masters? ALVARO QUIROS: I'm going to play next week in Tampa. After that, I will fly to Open de AndalucÃÂa, because it is at home and I think I should try to play. And one week off, and I will fly for the Masters. Q. You go from this golf course to Tampa, two different golf courses; do you like that? ALVARO QUIROS: Yeah, as I said before if I want to finish the year Top-25 of the world, I think I should be able to play in any course. Obviously this is a golf course that I like. I played two or three years ago in Tampa, and I like it, too. Obviously it was a completely different style, but I probably -- if I am to be consistent, it's going through these statement to improve my game in all kind of golf courses. Q. We saw you in Tampa and that was when you hit it over the range into -- if you hit it out of the range, are you still going to be able to hit it out of the range? ALVARO QUIROS: Probably not this year. I think I sacrificed a little bit of my length to hit it straighter, but we will see. You don't know, the materials that I am playing this year, they are even better than three years ago. So you don't know. Q. What is the motivation to get consistency? When you look back to Dubai and you look at hole 8 on Sunday where you had a triple-bogey 7, one of the toughest holes on the course and you had a birdie on the toughest hole on the course on hole 9 and then go on and win the tournament. Are you really determined to be consistent, or are you happy to rely on being an exciting player and having excitement out on the golf course? Which is more important to you? ALVARO QUIROS: Well, I mean, it depends from the point of view, what is consistence? Consistent is to shoot every single day, 70, for example. In my case, consistent is not being in trouble. I think Dubai wasn't a good example. After starting the round, the final round with a good four birdies in five holes, make a triple-bogey, consistent is gone. There's not anymore consistent. Suddenly birdie at the next one, I didn't make birdie at the par 5, and suddenly hole-in-one. So this is what I want to change. I would like to make just hole-in-ones and birdies, not the triple-bogeys. (Laughter). It's just the consistence, basically, in my case. As I said before, I'm not joking. I know it is difficult to believe, but sometimes I'm looking for something to improve, and it's not the best option. I think I have to wait to see what change, because from three years ago to here, I have to recognize that I'm a better golfer. I'm not hitting the ball better but I'm a better golfer because the score says that I'm a better golfer. But I don't know what changed from three years to here. Probably, again, I have to go through rough times or tough times to see what change. Q. Rory says that he's going to step back five percent, Rory McIlroy, step back five percent, and make more strategically clever decisions rather than going for par fives and the obvious shot; is that something that you're considering, as well? ALVARO QUIROS: You know, sometimes in the par 5s, I feel myself, too, a little bit too much tentative because I have length to hit the green in two, but sometimes it's not worth it. Or you're on the green and you cannot even make four. But these kind of things are not clever things I think. They are just ambitious, and too much ambitious about making three. I have always in my mind, could hit I a good 3-wood and I could finish five meters to the flag and make three. Instead to think, okay, if I miss the 3-wood, I'm going to be in a bunker unplayable or in a rough unplayable. So how do you call that? I don't know how to call this, ambitiousness, cleverness; I don't know how to call it. Q. It's entertaining. ALVARO QUIROS: For you guys, yeah. Obviously for the people who is outside or in the other side of the TV, it was a very exciting fourth round in Dubai but for me it wasn't. I would prefer to be winning by four, playing the 18th hole with a 3-wood and instead to hit the driver to try to make three. Q. With your length and your ambition, it's kind of expected that you would be a very good player at Augusta, and you've played there twice and struggled both times. Why do you think that is, and is that something that you are more ready to address this time than you were the last two? ALVARO QUIROS: Obviously the first year for me in Augusta was a good experience because I was expecting something different; not better, not worse, something different. Last year I learned from the first year, and unfortunately the 13th hole finished with my round. I was Top-20 or Top 15 in the leaderboard before the 13th tee shot. And after that, I missed the cut. So I think it shows you that it's not a problem of game. It's a problem of what I'm expecting in a round of golf. When you are shooting 3-under in Augusta and you have two par 5s to play, relative easy holes if you compare the Amen Corner and the front nine to come, you're expecting to think, well, I can shoot 5-under. But instead to make birdie at 13, you make bogey; now you are in debit. It looks like the golf course has to give you something and the golf course, it don't have to give you should go. You have to beat the golf course. Well, again, the bogey at 14; after that, it's like you are pushing yourself, but you are not anymore in the tournament mentally speaking. This is the only problem that I have with Augusta. This year, hopefully, would I like to be in a different position, in a more comfortable position to afford the first two rounds to make the cut. This is my target. As you said, I missed two cuts the only two times that I've been over there, so I couldn't expect to finish Top-10. I have to try to play to make the cut and then we will see. Q. What did you expect the first time you went there? Did you think that, hey, this is going to be a course perfectly suited for me? ALVARO QUIROS: (Smiling) Well, unfortunately, I've never seen anything from Augusta before I flew in 2009. Everybody was speaking such a good things about Augusta that I was expecting a golf course in a different design. After playing it, I felt that I need to play a lot of rounds of golf to be successful in Augusta. This is what change. This is the only thing. Augusta gave me a different point of view of what I thought that should be Augusta. I mean, it's not fairness; it's just what we have. This is Augusta. If you like it, well; if you don't like it, don't come. It's as simple as that. This is what I like. Now I want to go to Augusta because this -- this is not fairness; it's what we have. 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. It has to change a little bit. I couldn't be thinking that the next shot that I'm going to hit is going to be the best of my life. You have to think sometimes that it's going to be a good shot, but not enough to hit a 3-wood to a par 5 on the second shot. I think this is why I like to play well over there. It tests me. It improves me. Q. What's your favorite par 5 on the course at Augusta? ALVARO QUIROS: In Augusta? Well, you know, I'm not a draw player. So the second is not my favorite. The 8th, could be okay. I can shape left-to-right but with the big bunker that I have on the side, it's not an easy tee shot. And obviously 13 is and probably 15, from my point of view is a good par 5 for me. I just need to be on the middle right side of the fairway and then hit a middle or long and be able to stop the ball easily. And the rest of the par 5s is even more difficult. Q. What is the shortest club you've hit into 15 in the two rounds and practice rounds you've played? ALVARO QUIROS: On 15, if I'm not wrong, 7-iron. On 13, I was able to hit 8. If I'm not wrong, the first round two of years ago, I hit 8-iron and I make 6. (Laughter). Q. Details, please. ALVARO QUIROS: The thing is, I was practicing my first round of golf in Augusta, and I was chipping from the left -- you know, back left side of the green, the deepest side, I was with a 58, you know, like a floppy shot style, it's not that difficult. First round in Augusta, I played 8-iron to the middle of the green but just the ball pitched five meters more than I want. So it release on the same hole, the left side and the flat was on the right side. And when I arrive over there, they cut it. It wasn't the same -- the same ground. I cannot chip it anymore, so I have to putt it. These are the kind of things that you need to know to play well in Augusta. Obviously I was putting over there, watching the lake behind -- well, the ditch behind, the big dip, and I said, well, come on, don't over-release it, but don't leave it short, either. This is not the typical good start. Boom, I push it, to the ditch directly. I have to drop on the other side, chip and 2-putt, 6, with an 8-iron. These are the kind of things that Augusta teach you, even with an 8-iron, you have to be careful. Q. Was there anything about Augusta that you really liked the first time you went there? ALVARO QUIROS: Obviously I love the atmosphere of the golf course. I love the tournament, and the golf course, as I said, was in a perfect shape. Unfortunately I cannot play the weekend to see how the greens dry out and goes even quicker. This is what I'm waiting; this is what I'm expecting this year, to really play the Masters. Because I make my first two appearance over there, but I didn't play the Masters. I didn't enjoy the weekend. Q. We hear often what players think of Seve and the legend of Seve, but what about Olazábal, personally for you, and what he's meant for you and your tour? ALVARO QUIROS: Well, I have to recognize that I didn't see Seve playing golf. I start to play golf at nine, so '83 plus nine, '92 and Seve was coming back of everything. So I really don't know how big was Seve, unfortunately. But I live very well Olazábal's second win in the Masters. This is why probably Olazábal could be more kind of an idol for me than Seve, because I live more his career. But at the same time, I think Olazábal is a gentleman inside and outside the golf course, and this is the most important thing, to be a gentleman or to be a nice person, more than a great golfer, this is why. Q. They say it may not be a good thing to meet your heros; can you remember the first time you met José Maria in person? Were you over-awed or awestruck or surprised in any way? ALVARO QUIROS: Well, it's a good story, because if I'm not wrong, it was in 1999 for the World Golf Championships event in Valderrama if I'm not wrong. GORDON SIMPSON: The American Express. ALVARO QUIROS: Yes, that's it, the American Express. I remember perfectly he went to my home club La Cañada, which is a public golf course, because they told him, hey, it's a good golf course, you should try to see it just for fun. And I played with a friend and on the second tee suddenly arrives the main guy of the pro shop and he said, hey, get out of the way because Olazábal is coming behind you. It was, "Olazábal" -- imagine! So he arrives to the tee, hits his driver in the third hole, used to be the third hole and now it's the 12th because we have another nine holes. And he said, "Come on, hit the ball." You know, we were watching each other, and I said, "He's speaking with us." "Yeah, come on, hit the driver." Imagine, for us, I cannot even put the ball in the tee, I was shaking. This was the first time I ever met Olazábal. A few years later, I played the Spanish Open as an amateur, and I was at the same time with him in the lobby of the hotel. And I asked him, can you remember me; obviously not. I mean, I was a child and I grew up. And he said, "Well, I'm sorry, but no." I said, "I played with you six holes in La Cañada, my home club." He cannot believe it. He says, "How much did you grow up." I used to hit a ball, now I play. It's very nice, because he's still laughing today about these six holes that he played with us, because we were, you know, just two boys, hitting the ball as strong as we can, and it was funny for him. Q. Did you hit it past him? ALVARO QUIROS: Not this time. Q. He would have remembered. ALVARO QUIROS: No, but what I remember perfectly is the sound of José Maria's items, every single time through the ball. This is something that I have already in my mind. You know, like that kaahhhhssss (sounds) and the ball is really solid, the 2- or 3-irons, it was unbelievable. This is something that I still have it in my mind. GORDON SIMPSON: At this stage in your life, were you very keen on golf or was it just a little bit of fun? ALVARO QUIROS: No, at this time obviously it was just fun. I remember perfectly that I played -- well, I mean, I was playing football and golf at the same time until it I was 14 years old. I decide to just play golf, because I spent one weekend every two months outside the home, and this was exciting. It was great for me. So imagine what kind of professional -- what kind of targets I have; just having a good fun. Q. If I understand correctly, you did not watch the Masters on television as a boy, you had never seen the golf course before you went there? ALVARO QUIROS: No, because, well, mainly, Spain is not a golf -- it don't used to be a golf country. And the people who can see golf was because they had private TV or pay TV. And coming from a poor, average family, so we couldn't afford it much. This is why I've never seen a golf tournament, really, from TV until I was 21 years old, something like that, yeah. Q. So you did see it before you ever went? ALVARO QUIROS: Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Q. Have you ever talked with Olazábal about it and picked his brain? ALVARO QUIROS: About the Masters. Q. Or Seve or anybody? ALVARO QUIROS: About Augusta with Olazábal, yeah. 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. Olazábal, he's like a fish in the sea; he's perfect over there. He love the shape of the greens, the greens, so quick. Well, he can speak about Augusta, everything. For him it was a great win after being injured; so it's a special atmosphere for him. GORDON SIMPSON: Did you play with him in practice at all? ALVARO QUIROS: I played with him in my first round the first year, with him and Miguel Angel. But they don't help me a lot there. (Laughter) They never told me on 13 left side can I not chip on the Thursday. (Laughter). They only tell me, this is not a pin position. But they don't leave me where they are going to be. But no, it's something that you have to learn. It doesn't matter if Olazábal, 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. GORDON SIMPSON: You learn the hard way. ALVARO QUIROS: I think this is how I'm learning all my life, missing and then trying to learn about it. Q. What did you do when you first went to No. 3? Did you try and drive that green? It's reachable for you? ALVARO QUIROS: Last year I remember I was playing with the pin position, the pins where the pin positions were, I could hit a driver or just an iron. This is something that I learn. I heard that Seve used to say that as closest to the green, it's better, you know, on his time playing. In my case, as close to the green is not the best thing, because I'm not his hands. I'm more of a bricklayer, you know. (Laughter). It's difficult to believe but I'm a bricklayer. This is why I hit the ball that long. I'm not as skillful. Q. Is it your hope to get an artist's hands, to get the feel? ALVARO QUIROS: Well, I'm a feeling player. I don't know how to say in English, but I mean, you can see in Seve, 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. In Olazábal's case, it's the same. He was for a while the best iron hitters of his time. This is something that you have or you don't have. So that 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. If I improve my weakness, and I keep the things good, this is why. I can see most of the guys here are playing his best most of the time. I know that I'm not playing on my best. I'm playing in a good level but not my best. So my hope is one day, play consistently to my best and see what I can get. I mean, if I have to fight the rest of my life to be the 20th of the world or the 50th or the 100th of the world but I'm giving my hundred percent, it's fair enough. I will be proud of myself. The problem is, if I play the 80 percent the rest of my life, and I reach the 20th of the world, because I will be, you know, with a debit on myself. I know that I never reached the 100 percent, this is what worries me. Q. Which is your best chance of winning a major? Would it be the U.S. Open or the British Open? ALVARO QUIROS: I will say the Masters. Q. You would say the Masters? ALVARO QUIROS: Yeah. I would say the Masters, because in the Masters, you don't really need to hit the ball very low, for example. At The Open, most of the time, you need to hit the ball high to stop it on the greens. Right now, like the golf course is, I think the length is a good advantage. So probably this is my ideal conditions. The Open is a golf tournament that I love, but most of the time, you play under bad conditions, weather conditions, and you really need to hit the ball low. It's a good effort for me to hit the ball lower. The U.S. Open, well, heavy rough. The heavy rough is not a good sign for me. And the PGA, well, I mean, it depends what kind of courses we play. But as I said before, I think if you want to become a good player, you really need to play well everywhere. So I'm not going to close any door. I want to think that I'm going to be able in the future in a few years' time, next month, I will be able to play in contention in any of the majors. Q. Do you have any advice for young, aspiring golfers? ALVARO QUIROS: Any advice about that? Well, you know, this is something that nobody has to teach me, never, and it's ambitious. I mean, if you want to go further, in anything, you need to be ambitious. You really need to love what you are doing. So in my case, I think an advice should be just try your best. I mean, I know that is a topic, but it's a very difficult thing to make. Just try your best every single day and work hard. Mainly I think we are -- I think we are in a wonderful sport because people who doesn't have a great talent, but they are spending a lot of time practicing, they can make great things. And the opposite; people who has a great talent and doesn't work enough, they didn't reach the same point, and I think this is beautiful. This is the only advice probably: Work hard. Q. Where did you get your love of golf? Did your father play? ALVARO QUIROS: Yeah, my father used to play. My father used to play. And I was very lucky, as I said, because when I was growing up, they built the public golf course where I'm coming from, La Cañada, it's just beside Valderrama. Obviously everybody knows that it's a famous area for the golf courses that we have: Sotogrande, Almenara, La Reserva and La Cañada, which is the golf course that I have, and for us, we were the first guys, the first young guys -- Q. Local guys? ALVARO QUIROS: -- local guys playing golf at this time. It was another exercise for us, playing football and golf. I was very lucky because we were easily 35, 40 guys, more or less of the same age playing golf. This is pure competitive. There is nothing better than this one. Unfortunately some of my friends decide to quit. Some of them decide to go to the instead to practice in the summertime. I was the typical guy who went to practice, but nobody push me. It was just my decision, because I like. It wasn't a sacrifice for me. It was as a good fun. I think today, this is it the score. I'm enjoying my life playing golf professionally, and this is not an easy thing. GORDON SIMPSON: Very entertaining on the course and you've entertained us off the course. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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