Sostak-Rosa ready for weekend

While the rest of the field slept, one golfer scooped popcorn at the Orange County Fair until midnight.

Marcus Sostak-Rosa has been working one of the stands this summer. He can only watch corn pop for so long before his mind wanders.

Sostak-Rosa just wants to see his golf game explode.

The 37th annual Costa Mesa City Championship begins today at 6 a.m. for some, 8:30 for Sostak-Rosa. The 21-year-old has to rest some before the start of the two-day tournament at Costa Mesa Golf & Country Club.

“I’m glad my coach [at Orange Coast College] is the tournament director,” Sostak-Rosa said of Sean Collins. “He knows I’ve been working late at the fair.”

A later tee time is the only break Collins gave Sostak-Rosa.

The first 18-hole course is Mesa Linda and Collins said conquering it won’t be easy. The course record is 12-under-par 58.

Guess who owns the mark, the same person positioning the pins.

“[Collins] said he’s going to put them on ridges, places hard to get to,” Sostak-Rosa said. “It’s not going to bother me. Everyone has to go off the same pins.”

Sostak-Rosa holds one advantage over many of the 100 competitors in the championship flight. This is his playground.

Long before he heard corn pop in a machine, Sostak-Rosa listened to the ball pop on a golf course. Sostak-Rosa was 11 when he fell in love with the sport.

Sostak-Rosa is now entering his second year at OCC. The 2006 Estancia High graduate can do things with a golf ball Tiger Woods can pull off.

Teammates marvel when Sostak-Rosa plays Hacky Sack with a club and ball. Instead of watching him bounce the ball off someone else, Sostak-Rosa can bounce a ball on the face of his sand wedge.

Forty-nine times Tiger achieves it in a commercial for a certain brand.

Playing Hacky Sack is as close as Sostak-Rosa has come to Tiger. Sostak-Rosa doesn’t have a huge contract with the logo Tiger wears and plays with in tournaments.

Sostak-Rosa wore the brand as a freshman at University of Oregon. The school has more swooshes than trees on campus.

The obsessive logo isn’t the reason Sostak-Rosa left Oregon and returned to Costa Mesa.

“After four months of rain and sitting indoors in Eugene, I didn’t want to do this for three more years,” Sostak-Rosa said. “It’s no fun when it’s raining.”

Rain won’t ruin Sostak-Rosa’s attempt today to win the backyard event for the first time.

The temperature is expected to be 75 today and Sunday, nice and cool. It’s up to the hometown kid to prevail.

Evan Derian of UC Berkeley returns to defend his title. Last year, Sostak-Rosa placed fifth, eight strokes back of Derian.

Sostak-Rosa finished with a four-under-par 66 on the first day, a disappointing one-over-par 73 on the second day. The 139 total gave Sostak-Rosa his best outing in a Costa Mesa City Championship.

Collins expects his golfer to be in contention when the final round turns to the Los Lagos course on Sunday.

“He’s got more talent than anyone I have ever seen, except for Bryan Saltus,” said Collins, whose OCC team benefited from having Sostak-Rosa this past season as the Pirates placed sixth at the Southern California Regional Championships in May.

“Everyone knows he has the potential to win it. This year he’s been more focused than any year prior.”

Sometimes Sostak-Rosa said he spends up to eight hours practicing. Working the popcorn stand at the fair has kept him away from golf.

Ryan Knapp, a recent Estancia graduate, has noticed the change. The two used to hit balls for hours until the fair began on July 10.

“He’s been working a bunch,” said Knapp, an incoming Orange Coast freshman, who’s making his Costa Mesa City Championship debut.

“I actually haven’t gone to the fair, but I’m going next week.”

For a free bag of popcorn, Knapp knows where he can score one.