WALLA WALLA, Wash.  Whitman's men's golf team enjoyed a stellar round Saturday during the opening round of the Whitman Men's Invitational at the par-72, 6,760-yard Wine Valley Golf Club course. The Blues' fourth-place total of 312 is just nine shots back from third place Linfield College.

Unfortunately for the players, Sunday's 9 a.m. shotgun start was delayed by and eventually canceled by fog at the rural course, leaving the Day 1 results as the final results.

Whitworth University is at the top of the team leaderboard with a 3-over par 291, eight strokes ahead of George Fox University.

On the individual leaderboard, Whitworth's Sam Stiles is at 3-under 69 after the first day, two strokes up on Fox's Joshua Lackey.

Whitman's Eric Wasserman and Luc Birchfield were low scorers for the Blues. Wasserman is tied for 10th at a 4-over 76, with Birchfield one shot behind in a tie for 15th.

The rest of the Whitman golfers were in a bunch further back in the pack.

Tobias Zabel (T-22nd, 79) has a stroke on Mario Santos-Davidson (T-27th, 80) and two on Charlie Scheider (T-29th, 81).

Matthew Bowman and Nick Xiang are tied for 31st after carding 10-over 82s.

The weekend's Invite is the fifth outing for the Blues this fall season, and their 312 on Saturday has been surpassed only three times in the nine rounds they've played so far.