Alvaro Quiros powers his way into Qatar contention

The eagerly awaited debuts of Boo Weekley and Brandt Snedeker, the high-profile Americans, on the European Tour ended prematurely in Doha yesterday, when they failed to make the cut in the Commercialbank Qatar Masters.
As they prepared for their long flights home to Florida and Nashville respectively, they could have taken with them two messages for any of their countrymen eyeing up the riches to be won on the new $20 million (about £14.4 million) Race to Dubai.
First, that there are no easy pickings to be swept up on a tour that the Americans have for so long regarded as secondary to their own and that, possibly next month and certainly in March, they will come up against a big-hitting phenomenon to match or even outstrike their own J. B. Holmes.
Lying fourth going into today’s third round is Álvaro Quirós, from Spain, who, if he should win his third tour title tomorrow, will climb into the top 64 in the world rankings. That means he will qualify for the Accenture Match Play Championship at Dove Mountain in Arizona, in three weeks’ time. The willowy 26-year-old cannot wait to broaden his horizons, having secured his first appearance in the United States, at the Bridgestone Invitational this August, on the back of the strength of the field when he won the Portuguese Masters last autumn.“The way the courses in the States are set up should suit me,” Quirós said yesterday after he defied the wind and rain to record a five-under-par round of 67 to move to within four strokes of Louis Oosthuizen, the leader from South Africa, who had a 65 to reach 12 under par. “You would think the way I hit the ball that the Match Play might suit me better, but there I use my brain.
“If my opponent goes off the fairway, I use a two-iron off the tee, but at Bridgestone I will have fun with my driver,” Quirós said with the broad smile that, along with his wide-brimmed straw hats, are his trademarks.
The extent of Quirós’s power is best explained by a conversation that he had with Raphaël Jacquelin after his round. On the practice range, he asked the Frenchman what club he had used playing his second shot into the wind at the 474-yard, par-four 11th hole. And where Jacquelin had taken a three-wood, Quirós had required only a seven-iron.
Weekley, after recording a second round of 73 yesterday, missed the halfway cut by three strokes and Snedeker was only two strokes better. Also flying out of Qatar early last night after missing the cut was Colin Montgomerie.
The Scot was looking forward to a quiet weekend in Dubai away from further media questioning about the Ryder Cup captaincy announcement, which is due to be made early next week.
“I am not saying anything significant to anyone,” Montgomerie said. “I will see you next week and I am looking forward to it.”
source: the london times