Tournament of Champions: How to bet the third round

Jordan Spieth made a run and Dustin Johnson is near the top, but it's Marc Leishman who will carry the shared lead into the weekend at the Tournament of Champions.

Leishman is tied with Brian Harman at 10-under par and sits at +350 to take down the title. Johnson is one shot back and slightly ahead of him at +300 in the betting odds. Spieth was able to match the low round of the day with a 7-under par 66 to get within five strokes and is now +800 after a rough opening round.

If you're looking for a guy to jump in with at the halfway point, Jon Rahm probably represents the best value at 22/1. Rahm is having problems with the greens, which is typical for first timers at Kapalua. But he's fourth in the field in Strokes Gained: Tee to Green, so he's giving himself a lot of chances to get the putter rolling.

For the third round, I'll be taking three matchups.

First is Austin Cook over Jonas Blixt at -125. Blixt had a hot putter on Friday but was terrible everywhere else. I'll be looking for some regression there while Cook will likely improve from his round during which he lost nearly two strokes on the greens.

Next is Hideki Matsuyama over Jason Dufner at -170. It's a lot of juice to lay, but Matsuyama is in a different class and Dufner, who is normally solid with his irons, actually lost strokes on the approach and was No. 3 in the field with the putter on Friday and No. 1 overall for the week. It's unlikely that Dufner, a usually poor putter by tour standards, will be able to keep that up.

My final play will be Kevin Chappell over Xander Schauffele at -140. Chappell hasn't putted well this week but has been gaining strokes tee to green. Meanwhile, Schauffele is losing a stroke per round with the irons so far. I think Chappell will get a couple more looks and if he can putt at the field average, he's likely to take down this matchup.

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: © Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

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