By Rich Copley
Staff Writer
Augusta Chronicle

As Alexander Cejka watched the rolling fairways and enthusiastic crowds at the 1985 Masters on TV, he knew he wanted to play the tournament.

It didn't hurt that the champion that year was his countryman, Bernhard Langer.

Monday, the 25-year-old three-time winner on the PGA European Tour took one of his first swings around the Augusta National Golf Club with the blond German as his tour guide.

``It was very interesting to see how he played the course,'' Cejka said, lazily puffing on a Marlboro after his practice round. He said watching Langer - who won again in 1993 - work the course was as much a part of his practice as hitting his own shots.

After Langer won his first Masters, he said he was the only German golfer anyone knew.

Cejka (CHAY-ka), a foreign invitee to this year's Masters, is making a bid to become the second.

He's off to a lightning start, having won seven tournaments worldwide in six years, including the 1995 Open de Andalucia, the Austrian Open and the Volvo Masters.

That period includes 1994, his rookie year on the European Tour, when he suffered a string of bad luck. He was sidelined for five weeks by severe sunstroke, got trapped in a traffic jam which made him miss his tee time the second day at the German Masters and a food poisoning episode forced him to withdraw from the Czechoslovakian Open.

This year he suffered a torn chest muscle which put him out of action for a few weeks, but his manager says he's better now.

Beyond the course, there's some image crafting going on in the Cejka camp.

For one thing, there's his hair.

At one time it was cascading down his neck onto his shoulders, and profiles started referring to Cejka as the Andre Agassi of golf. Then, after winning the Andalucia, he made a bet with his trainer that they would both shave their heads if he won another tournament.

Call him baldy.

The curly locks came off after the win at the Austrian. He's now sworn off bets.

He's also grown his hair back to a 'do slightly shorter than Langer's. It's been said he wants to be the first ponytailed player at the Masters, but Cejka says, ``You shouldn't believe everything you read.''

The only shaggy thing about his look Monday was a quarter-inch beard a la Don Johnson on Miami Vice.

There's also the often-told story of his childhood.

He was born in Marienbad, Czechoslovakia, behind the Iron Curtain. At age 9, his father told him they were going on a trip, which involved quite a bit of hitchhiking and walking across three countries - Italy, Switzerland and the former Yugoslavia.

``I was too young to understand what was going on,'' Cejka says.

They ended up settling in Germany, having left his mother and the rest of his family behind. There, he got serious about golf, driven by his father's strict work ethic, he says.

``I knew I loved the game and I didn't want to go to school anymore,'' Cejka says. And he didn't, devoting himself to golf full time when he was 17.

His earnings have allowed him to indulge in things, such as his love for fast cars: he has a Porsche 911 and a Ferrari Testarossa at home in Munich. And his success has earned him an invitation to the Masters.

Joining him are his manager, his trainer and his good friend, Karel Skopovycq, who's caddying for him this week.

Notably missing is his father, who has remarried and moved back to the Czech Republic. The elder Cejka's wife is pregnant and expected to deliver a baby girl sometime this week.

And that might be one reason why the smiling, joking German isn't sweating this tournament too much.

``I'm not really too concerned about it,'' Cejka says. ``I just want to enjoy being here, whether I play good or bad.''