Biography

I, Alvaro Quiros Garcia, was born on January 21st 1983 in a small town in the Cádiz province, Spain. My humble father was a gardener and a golfer. By the age of nine I had taken my first steps into a sport that would eventually become my livelihood and passion. It all started on La Cañada Golf Club.

The Beginning

From the age of 14 I played golf alongside my other great sporting passion, football. I was a decent football player and, at least they say that, I showed great skills and attitude as a cadet in my hometown team.

But eventually I had to choose between the two sports. With some good advice from my father, I left football. I did this in order to have time for all the practice and travel that is required of one who aims to become a great golfer.

To the age of 16, I continued to learn and practice my game at La Cañada Golf Club. I was coached and supervised by the local teaching staff, in particular Pedro Tineo, a great golfer and a superb teacher with a passion for teaching and inspiring young talents. He started to work with me in a serious and methodical way, inside his house with no ball, simply watching my swing path.

My practice didn’t stop at the golf course. After school, I used to go to Pedro’s house to practice on his terrace. I also spent many late nights on an improvised training course, dressed in warm clothes to keep the winter out. There I worked over and over again on my swing under the glare of the spotlights, and Pedro of course.

I trained every day, for many hours, swinging and swinging while working on my technique. It was hard work and maybe a bit too much for a 15-year-old boy. It is often at moments like this that people throw in the towel because they feel that the sacrifices you have to make in order to become an elite athlete are more than they can handle. But my own determination together with my father’s constant support paid off. In 1999, when I was 16 years old, I competed for Spain for the first time. 

From teen to golfer

When I was 18 years old I had a handicap of +1 and managed to win a scholarship to enter the Residential High Performance Centre Joaquin Blume in Madrid. I shared facilities with athletes who are now successful Olympians: Andrès Diaz, Juan Carlos Higuero, Aitami Ruano, the triathlete Ivan Rana and the hockey player Bemardino Herrera, amongst others. 

It was during this period I joined the national under-21-team, to play alongside names such as Gonzalo Fernandez Castano, Alfredo Garcia Heredia, Pablo Martin and Alejandro Canizares. 

Playing in the Spanish team colours, we won the European Amateur Team Championship title. After that I managed to finish 4th place twice in the individual European Amateur Individual Championship and win the prestigious Biarritz cup with 60 strokes. I also appeared twice at the British Amateur.

At this point in life Jose Rivero, the advisor to the Spanish team, took me under his wings. From that day on he has advised and assisted me in my play and how to improve my swing.

Turning professional

When turning 21 I had a handicap of +3.4 and I finally turned professional. I started to play the Spanish circuit, which was the Peugeot Tour. Advised by Rivero, I soon got my first victory at the Golf Club Sevilla in March 2005.

In May 2006, while playing the Spanish circuit, I received an invitation to play a Challenge Tour event at the Morson International Challenge in Manchester, which I won. Getting this first victory gave me the rights to play the full Challenge Tour during the remainder of the year. I finished on18th place in 2006, which earned me my European Tour card for 2007.

Even though I had earned my card, the category I had obtained gave me limited access to the second level of the Tour. As a result, I went to the qualifying school at San Roque Club where I improved my card category. Now I could start playing golf for real.