Masters 2018 Leaderboard: Live Look at Saturday Scores and Overall Predictions

American Patrick Reed heads the leaderboard midway through the 2018 Masters Tournament on nine-under par as Saturday's golf gets under way, with Australia's Marc Leishman trailing by two shots.

Reed is the only player at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia who has managed to record sub-70 cards on each day of the competition thus far, but his fast start will count for little unless he can continue leading through Sunday.

Henrik Stenson remains among the contender spots as he tends to do at major championships, currently third on five-under par, while Rory McIlroy follows him by one stroke in joint-fourth with Jordan Spieth.

With that crop of superstars on his tail, Reed has all the motivation he needs to keep his foot on the gas approaching the second half of the tournament.

The official PGA Tour Twitter account provided a glimpse at the leaderboard heading into Day 3, complete with probabilities of winning:

Visit the official PGA Tour website for a look at the live leaderboard in full.

Overall Predictions

It seems only customary that every Masters Tournament has at least one unassuming figure emerge to light up the competition early on, and Augusta State University alumnus Reed appears to be 2018's prizefighter.

Many people will jump on the underdog bandwagon, and with Spieth slipping to a 74 on Friday, Reed has a bit of breathing room to judge a winnable position before action resumes on Saturday:

The issue is that Reed is entering unknown territory, being that he's never had to shoulder this kind of pressure in any major, so there's no telling how he'll react with the world's elite breathing down his neck.

Although, as history suggests, his two-shot lead is one that tends to result in championship victory at Augusta, per ESPN Stats & Info:

Not if those chasing have anything to say about it. Sweden's Stenson is off to a consistent start in Georgia, having carded a 69 and 70 on Friday and Saturday, respectively, but he's never managed to finish inside the top 10 at the Masters.

McIlroy, on the other hand, has accomplished that feat the last four years in succession, and a composed 70 on Friday bore the look of a mature performance one might expect to see from an eventual champion:

The Northern Irishman has a conundrum on his hands in whether to chase the leaderboard and run the risk of derailing his own tournament, or play it safe and hope those above him in the standings slip up.

There have been finely decided shots in McIlroy's tournament already that, had they come off, would put him in a much stronger position. If he continues to chip away at the score, hoping for those margins to start falling his way, a maiden Masters triumph will finally be his.