European Tour Insider: Watch out, Sergio

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Alvaro Quiros won the '07 Alfred Dunhill Championship, the '08 Portugal Masters and the '09 Commercialbank Qatar Masters.

Spain's Alvaro Quiros is a star in the making.

Victory at the Commercialbank Qatar Masters on Sunday means the 26-year-old has now claimed three European Tour titles. The latest in Doha saw him soar up the Official World Golf Ranking and into the Masters and the World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play Championship fields.

With 18 players from the world's top 50 competing in the small Middle Eastern state, the event was the best-ranked on the Tour outside of majors andWorld Golf Championships. Quiros kept them all at bay.

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His caddie, Dave McNeilly, reportedly turned down a job with twice-U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen to work with Quiros. He first picked up the bag at the Portugal Masters, which Quiros won last year, and it's now a second big payday in a matter of months.

The Spaniard cuts a striking figure on the fairways, sporting a Panama hat, shades and sharp sideburns. There's almost always a gleaming smile, too. He's a real crowd-pleaser.

Quiros is currently working his way backwards through the James Bond films.

His girlfriend bought the DVDs for a Christmas present, and he even watched "Tomorrow Never Dies" before his final round.

The huge hitter knocks the living daylights out of the ball. He's licensed to thrill.

JIMENEZ SKIING

Spanish Ryder Cup star Miguel Angel Jimenez is playing despite an injured hand -- and playing well. Skiing in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Spain, he slipped and wrenched his thumb on the ski pole, damaging tendons and ligaments. He thinks he's a "15 handicapper" when it comes to skiing, usually enjoying the red slopes, and only once tackling the black.

BOO!

Boo Weekley has reiterated his intention regarding his golfing career -- to "get want I want to get out of it and then I'm done."

Weekley

The new European Tour member, enjoying playing the Qatar Masters, though missing the cut (along with Brandt Snedeker), said "I hate to know I've got to get up every morning and grind over something that it don't mean a hill of beans." Getting up in the morning meant 1 o'clock as he struggled with jetlag and opted to have a meal in the middle of the night.

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION?

Darren Clarke is looking to a healthier lifestyle to help him back into golf's elite. He's decided to give up alcohol, and he's switched back from cigarettes to cigars (very healthy!). He says he's in the gym twice a day and scaling back on the lattés from 15 a day to two. It didn't help in Doha, though, as he also missed the cut.

DUBAIIAN DREAMS

The Dubai Desert Classic is marking 20 years since it broke onto the world scene. The Gulf state first used the golf tournament to promote its name and boost tourism for when the oil ran out.

Dubai is now unrecognizable from when the Emirates course first staged the event. Back then, the twin guitars of the Hard Rock Café were the only high-rises for miles, and the course was genuinely an oasis in the desert. Now there's a background of towering hotels and skyscrapers from almost every tee box.

And the building work never stops. A 9,000-strong crew is working 24-7 on completion of the clubhouse, villas and roads around Greg Norman's impressive new Earth course, which will stage the Dubai World Championship in November -- the final event of the Race to Dubai.

Els

With three wins over the Emirates course, Ernie Els is one to follow this week, looking in good shape with a low round to close in Qatar last week. World No. 2 Sergio Garcia is on the back of two top-10s and leads the Race to Dubai. Another former winner, the Swede Henrik Stenson, now lives in Dubai and always thrives here.

Here are a couple of less familiar names to watch out for:
• Ireland's Damien McGrane -- the Volvo China Open winner -- gained immeasurably from playing alongside the eventual winner Tiger Woods last year and is on point after a fourth-place finish in Doha.

• Jeev Milkha Singh closed with a 67 in Qatar and has frequently played well in Dubai. The Indian feels at home with the backing of so many countrymen now resident in the UAE.