VISTA, Calif. – The Western Washington University men's golf team opened the spring portion of the 2022-23 season Monday with the first two rounds of the Fujikura Invitational.

 

The Vikings are tied for 3rd in a tough 12-team field through the first 36 holes in the tournament hosted by Cal State San Marcos at Shadowridge Golf Club. Nine of the 12 teams in the tournament are ranked in the top 45 in the nation via the Golfstat.com Relative Team Rankings.

 

No. 16 WWU turned in team rounds of 295 (+7) and 291 (+3) to finish the first day at 10-over-par 586. The Vikings are tied with No. 14 Colorado State-Pueblo, six strokes back of second-place No. 24 Cal State San Marcos (+4, 580) and seven back of tournament leader No. 30 Cal State San Bernardino (+3, 579).

 

"It's great to have the winter/spring schedule underway," said WWU Director of Golf Luke Bennett. "Today was a good team effort and we'll need the same for tomorrow. The guys stayed patient and confident most of the day. We'll look to do more of the same in Tuesday's final round."

 

Senior Cody Oakes leads the Viking contingent at 1-over-par 145 to tie for 11th place in the 69-player field after turning in rounds of 2-under-par 70 in the morning and 3-over-par 75 in the afternoon.

 

Freshman Peter Dionne-Yahr is tied for 16th at 2-over-par 146 with matching rounds of 1-over-par 73 and senior Jordan Lee and junior Drew Halili are tied for 24th at 4-over-par 148. Halili turned in the teams low round in the afternoon with a 1-under-par 71.

 

Matt Miller of Colorado State-Pueblo holds a two-stroke lead for individual medalist honors at 9-under-par 135 with rounds of 69 (-3) and 66 (-6).

 

Tuesday's weather for the final round shows a high chance for rain throughout the morning and early afternoon. Any updates will be posted on the WWU Twitter feed at Twitter.com/WWUAthletics.

 

Tuesday's final round is scheduled to start at 7:45 am at Shadowridge Golf Club, with the Vikings teeing off holes 1-4 while paired with Cal State San Bernardino and Cal State San Marcos. The final round leaderboard can be tracked online via wwuvikings.com/MG_Live.

 

Here is a look at WWU's individual results and the team leaderboard following Monday's first and second rounds of the Cal State San Marcos Fujikura Invitational at Shadowridge Golf Club in Vista, California:

 

 

The 2023 Fujikura Invitational hosted by Cal State San Marcos features a live leaderboard via GolfStat. For all WWU Men's Golf tournaments, you can directly access the live leaderboard by pointing your browser to WWUVikings.com/MG_Live.

 

Following the Fujikura Invitational, WWU will take a few weeks off and return to action February 27-March 1 at the three-day D2 Prestige hosted by Cal State San Bernardino at the PGA West Course in La Quinta, California.

 

Here is a look at the 2022-23 schedule for the WWU Men's Golf program, in addition to the 2023 postseason schedule. The spring tournament schedule will be finalized later this fall. All tournament recaps, season statistics and program history can be found on WWUVikings.com/MGolf.

 

 

Fans can follow the WWU Men's Golf program online at WWUVikings.com/MGolf, and via social media on Twitter (@WWUGolf), Instagram (@wwugolf) and Facebook (@WWUMGolf).

 

The WWU men's golf team has an incredible streak of advancing to the NCAA Championships in each of the 23 seasons the program has competed at the NCAA Division II level dating back to the 1998-99 season, which includes this season after earning the automatic bid from winning the GNAC Championships. WWU placed 3rd at the 2013 national championship for the highest finish in program history. The program has produced 16 NCAA All-Americans and has won 10 of 14 Great Northwest Athletic Conference championships since the tournament debuted in 2008, including the 2022 title. The Vikings have also featured the GNAC Championships individual medalist in nine of 14 tournaments with Aidan Thain joining the long list of conference champions in 2022 and nine GNAC Player of the Year awards.