The Masters 2018 leaderboard: Who is leading after Round 1?

The opening round of the 2018 Masters Tournament is in the books. Let’s take a moment and check out who is toward the top of the leaderboard heading into Friday.

At long last the azaleas were in bloom and the birds were chirping (at least on our television screens). In one of the smallest tournament fields in recent Masters memory, 87 competitors teed off at Augusta National to kickoff the 2018 Masters Tournament.

With a lot of tournament still to play, fan favorites are on top, veterans struggled to make par and last year’s champion went from the top of the class to second-to-last in one bad hole.

History has proven there are no guarantees at Augusta, but the betting money heading into Round 2 is the 2017 Masters champion Sergio Garcia won’t come anywhere close to his second green jacket. After grabbing an early share of the lead, Garcia stumbled down the stretch. At the par-5 15th hole, he dropped five different shots into the water to tally a single hole total of 13 to currently sit tied for 85 and second to last on the leaderboard.

The 2000 Masters winner, Vijay Singh, took an early lead as one of the first groups out. Singh birdied his first three of four holes to jump out to an early 3-under lead. He followed it up with two more birdies overshadowed by four bogeys to finish the day 1-under and tied for 16th.

As the sun shined on Augusta, the afternoon competition heated up quickly. One day after making a hole in one at the Par-3 Contest, then dislocating his ankle (and popping it back in) while celebrating, Tony Finau not only teed it up in Round 1 but at one point found himself with the solo lead. After starting off bogey-birdie, Finau finished the day 4-under to enter the clubhouse as the outright leader for the time being.

Under the watchful eye of the entire golf world, Tiger Woods turned in a respectable 1-over. Woods opened with a birdie at the third hole but followed it with four bogeys. Birdies at 14 and 16 helped to savage Woods’ return to Augusta.

Elsewhere on the course, Henrik Stenson also claimed a share of the lead but ultimately turned in a 3-under round to put himself in a seven-way tie for 4th place with the likes of Patrick Reed, Charley Hoffman and Rory McIlroy.

Here are the top-15 and other notables from the full leaderboard after round one of the 2018 Masters.

1. Jordan Spieth -6
T2. Tony Finau -4
T2. Matt Kuchar -4
T4. Henrik Stenson -3
T4. Patrick Reed -3
T4. Charley Hoffman -3
T4. Adam Hadwin -3
T4. Haotong Li -3
T4. Rory McIlroy -3
T4. Rafael Cabrera Bello -3
T11. Bernd Wiesberger -2
T11. Zach Johnson -2
T11. Marc Leishman -2
T11. Phil Mickelson -2
T11. Rickie Fowler -2

T21. Justin Rose E
T29. Tiger Woods +1
T29. Dustin Johnson +1
T42. Justin Thomas +2
T55. Jason Day +3
T85. Sergio Garcia +9

Next: 5 groups to watch in Rounds 1 and 2 of the 2018 Masters

The play of the day undoubtedly belonged to 2015 Masters champion Jordan Spieth. After a rocky start to his opening nine holes, Spieth entered the 13th hole 2-under par thanks to an eagle on the par-5 eighth.

From holes 13 to 17, Spieth turned in five straight birdies to take the most commanding lead of the day. He finished his round with a bogey at 18 but still good enough for a two-stroke lead over Finau and Matt Kuchar heading into round two on Friday.

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