Masters 2019: Live Updates for Leaderboard Scores on Thursday

Having the opportunity to put on the green jacket late Sunday afternoon while sitting in Butler Cabin is the dream of any golfer who gets a chance to play in the Masters.

It's clearly vital to play superbly on the back nine of the final round, but that's not the only requirement. Winning the Masters almost always requires playing well in the opening round and staying close to the top of the leaderboard.

The best golfers in the world are not going to win the Masters on Thursday, but they can lose it. Since Tiger Woods won his last Masters in 2005, the next 13 winners have all been in the top 10 after the opening round of the tournament.

2019 Masters 1st-Round Info (All times ET)

On the Range: CBS Sports Network from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Live TV: ESPN from 3 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Stream: Masters.com

• Featured Groups: 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
• Amen Corner: 10:45 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Holes 15 and 16: 11:45 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Leaderboard (as of 12:35 p.m. ET)

Corey Conners -3
Justin Harding -2
Aaron Wise -2
Branden Grace -2
Li Haotong -2
Patton Kizzire -2
J.B. Holmes -1
Lucas Bjerregaard -1
Henrik Stenson -1
Charley Hoffman -1
Tommy Fleetwood -1
Gary Woodland -1
Jon Rahm -1
Sandy Lyle -1
*-amateur

Full leaderboard can be found here (courtesy of PGATour.com)

Tiger's good start

Tiger Woods is one of the most charismatic and popular athletes in the world. He is attempting to win the fifth Masters title of his career and his 15th major.

The last time he won one of the four biggest tournaments of the year was in 2008, when he won the U.S. Open in a playoff.

Injuries, personal issues and inconsistent play have kept Woods from growing that total, but he comes into the tournament loaded with confidence. He got off to a sharp start in the Masters, registering par on the difficult opening hole and recording a birdie on the second hole.

Of the two, the par on the first hole may be the more telling score, because the hole regularly causes problems for the best golfers in the world.

However, he gave a stroke back when he bogeyed the fifth hole.

Woods is confident about his chances of playing well at the Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia and having a memorable Masters performance.

"I just feel like that I've improved a lot over the past 12, 14 months," Woods said, per Tod Leonard of the Los Angeles Times. "But more than anything, just proven to myself that I can play at this level again. I've worked my way back into one of the players that can win events."

Reed goes for two in a row

Patrick Reed fought valiantly last year and held off Rickie Fowler, Jon Rahm and Jordan Spieth to win a pressure-packed 2018 Masters title.

Reed earned the first major title of his career and went to Butler Cabin after he completed his 72nd hole to put on the green jacket.

The 28-year-old believes that winning the Masters previously gives him an advantage over many of his competitors.

"So once you get over that hurdle and you do it once, then all of a sudden now your confidence goes even higher because you start believing," Reed said, per Mark Schlabach of ESPN.com. "Not only do you believe that you can win, but you've also already done it, as well. To me, I was always thinking that the first one would be the hardest."

There's logic to Reed's thinking, but to get a second Masters title, he will have to pick up his game. Prior to the Masters, he had just one top-10 finish in the 10 events he played this season.

His driving accuracy is an issue, as he ranks 194th in driving accuracy, per PGATour.com. That's not going to get the job done at Augusta, or any other PGA Tour stop.

If Reed is going to defend his title, he will have to turn it around quickly. He was one-over par through six holes in his opening round of the Masters.