Alvaro was introduced to the game of golf at the age of nine by his Father. In his early teens it was a toss up between golf and his other passion football but when the time came to focus his Father persuaded him to concentrate on golf. By the age of 18 he had a handicap of +1 and won a scholarship to go to the Joaquin Blume centre for high performance in Madrid where the future top Spanish sports stars go to study.
During this time he was selected for the Spanish under 21 golf team who won the European Masters title.
In May 2006 he was invited to play in a Challenge Tour event which he won giving him the chance to play on the Challenge Tour for the remainder of that year. He finished 18th which gave him certain playing rights on the European Tour. Not satisfied with this he returned to Q school where he improved his ranking to obtain a better category position on the European Tour.

He got off to a flying start on the European Tour in December 2006 by winning the Dunhill Championship, but 2007 proved to be difficult as an injury meant he did not play from May to October. In 2008 he won the Portugal Masters and in 2009 won in Qatar and nearly defended his title in 2010 finishing second. In May 2010 he became only the fourth Spaniard since 1972 to win the Open de Espana. He is the longest hitter on the European Tour.