Tour Championship: Justin Thomas moves into tie for the lead, favored after two rounds

Justin Thomas jumped up to the top of the leaderboard and into a three-way tie with Paul Casey and Webb Simpson after two rounds at the Tour Championship.

Thomas' round of 66 was bested by only one player all day as he moved to the top of the betting board at +300. Jordan Spieth, the previous favorite, slipped from +400 to 14/1 after shooting even par and falling four shots back.

The tournament is still wide open with 10 of the 30 players sitting within two shots, and with how difficult East Lake can play at times, it's hard to count out anyone within four or five shots.

Of our bets, Justin Rose jumped to within one shot by matching the 66 of Thomas. Given his history on the course, I'm willing to ride it out with him over the weekend and see how he fares.

Friday's plays went 0-1-1 and were a bit unlucky. Kevin Kisner tied with Pat Perez thanks in large part to a hole out by Perez on No. 16.

I also posted Xander Schauffele over Patrick Reed on Twitter. Schauffele did his part and shot 66, but Reed played the best round of the day. A 30-footer on No. 18 capped his 65.

After two days, we're sitting 1-1-1 for a gain of 1.5 units. Saturday has quite a few matchups I like for the third round. I'll be going with Thomas over Casey at -140, Rose over Gary Woodland at -190 and Brooks Koepka over Jason Dufner -180 as individual plays. I'm also parlaying all three favorites together at +315. All of three have been have had issues on the green and are going against guys being propped up by the putter.

I'll also go back to Kyle Stanley over Adam Hadwin -120. Hadwin gained five strokes on Stanley with the putter on Friday and I expect something closer to a one or two stroke advantage in the third round.

Joshua has spent the last five years writing about sports and the last 10 years betting them, mostly on golf. He's one of approximately five people who will watch the PGA over the NFL in November. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaPerry22

Photo: © Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

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