Quiros extends a special birthday wish

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- An Englishman with a television camera asked Alvaro Quiros to stand right here, no, no, a step over there, and, "Please say, in English, 'Happy birthday, Seve.'"

Ordinarily, it's not a good idea for the media to give orders to a golfer who has followed a first-day 65 with a second-round 73. But Quiros is a young, handsome charmer eager to please.

"In English?" said Quiros, the latest Spanish star in the line that began 30 years ago with Seve Ballesteros, now stricken with a brain tumor, reaching age 54 tomorrow.

"Yes, English," the teevee man said.

Quiros already had explained his bad day, needing only three words: "It is Augusta." In elaboration, he said he drove the ball perfectly one day, erratically the next: "And every single time I missed the fairway, I paid a toll." There was also a double-bogey at the short, watery 12th, partially offset by a wedge to five feet for a birdie at the 18th. At six-under par, he is very much in the hunt.

And when he finished saying, "Happy birthday, Seve," Quiros looked into the camera a second time and said with a smile, "Sorry, Seve. But it's in English."

-- Dave Kindred