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OCC’s Reyes wins Costa Mesa City Championship

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Marc Reyes enjoys talking about a past winner of the Costa Mesa City Championship. He’s quick to point out Mark O’Meara won the golf tournament also known as the Will Jordan Classic.

Reyes is happy to now be in that group of champs and have a cool connection with the Long Beach State alum O’Meara.

Reyes, who will be a sophomore at Orange Coast College, is headed to Long Beach State next year. He’s going to be another 49er who won the 42nd annual Costa Mesa City Championship.

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Time will tell if he will achieve great feats as O’Meara did. For now, Reyes is pleased with his victory and a strong summer.

Reyes shot eight-under-par 62 on Mesa Linda at Costa Mesa Country Club to grab the first-round lead on Saturday. He then sealed the deal with a four-under 68 round on Los Lagos to win the tournament at 12-under 130.

He said he felt comfortable in his first round even though the pin placements are known to be tough in the City. Director Sean Collins, who is OCC’s coach, can be credited for that. Still, Reyes said he felt as if that first round was a practice round. He once shot 60 on Mesa Linda last year.

The low round helped in the finale, as Ricky Owaki nearly caught Reyes on Los Lagos. Owaki, last year’s runner-up, was one stroke behind Reyes before the final hole.

Reyes’ second shot on the par-5 No. 18 landed short of the bunker, while Owaki’s went in the bunker, Reyes said.

But both made it pretty close to the cup for a birdie chance, as Reyes was about four feet out and Owaki was about six or seven feet away.

“Ricky just barely missed it,” Reyes said of Owaki’s birdie putt. “Every one thought it was going in and at the last second it broke. Even when I stepped over my putt, I was still a little nervous.”

But Reyes made his birdie.

“It felt great,” Reyes said. “I was relieved. I was very happy.”

Travis Russell (67-70—137), a former Newport Harbor High standout who also played at UC Irvine, finished third. Jason Wall (69-69—138) was fourth and Jake Allanach (66-73—139) was fifth.

Reyes, 19, played golf for two years at Venice High and said he had earned a scholarship to play at Long Beach State. But he was short of foreign language class requirements and needed to attend a community college, he said.

He chose OCC, mostly because Michael Chen, another fellow Pirate, was also headed to Long Beach State.

Chen enters Long Beach State this year. Chen and Reyes helped OCC win its fifth straight Orange Empire Conference title last season. The Pirates finished third at the Southern California Regional Championship.

Reyes qualified for the California Community College Athletic Assn. Championships after finishing in the top 12 at the regional. He finished off his freshman season by taking fourth in the state, which has produced high expectations for his final season at OCC.

Reyes finished tied for first in June at the Brookside qualifier for the U.S. Amateur Public Links.

But he missed the cut for match play at Sand Creek Station Golf Course in Newton, Kansas.

“It’s very competitive,” Reyes said. “It was a good experience. It was my first USGA event.”

Igor Suvorov won the First Flight of the Costa Mesa City Championship.

Wayne Winant won the Second Flight.

Mike Rawles won the Senior Flight (gross) and David Jones won the Senior Flight (net).

For complete results, go to costamesacountryclub.com/championship-flight-results.

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