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Thomas takes over at the top on Sunday afternoon
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Thomas takes over at the top on Sunday afternoon

Justin Thomas took over at the top of the WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational leaderboard on Sunday afternoon as overnight leader Brendon Todd paid the price for failing to take his chances on the front nine.

Justin Thomas

Thomas, who won this event when it was held at Firestone Country Club in 2018, began the day four shots behind Todd but found himself with a one stroke lead after carding four birdies and no bogeys in his opening ten holes.

Todd, meanwhile, was unable to make any birdies in his first nine holes and dropped a shot at the eighth to fall off the top of the leaderboard.

Thomas got his first birdie of the day at the second after playing a top quality iron shot to six feet and tapping in to move to nine under par.

The World Number Three then got up and down from the left rough for a birdie at the third to make it two in a row before safely parring his next three holes.

Thomas slotted in another birdie from 15 feet at the seventh before joining Todd at the summit on 12 under with a fine 20 footer on the ninth green.

And when Todd, who had missed a number of birdie efforts in the early stages of his fourth round, could not convert his short par putt at the eighth, Thomas was the new outright leader.

Thomas created another birdie chance at the tenth but his 12 foot try slid just by.

Defending champion Brooks Koepka was in a tie for second alongside Todd just one shot behind Thomas after book-ending his front nine with birdies at the first and ninth.

Tom Lewis, who equalled the course record at TPC Southwind with a stunning 61 on Saturday, was at it again on day four as he made four birdies in a row from the third before rolling in from 30 feet on the ninth green to turn in 30.

He missed long birdie putts at the tenth, 11th and 12th before dropping his first shot of the day on the 13th to drop back to ten under, where he sat alongside fellow Englishman Matthew Fitzpatrick and Americans Daniel Berger and Chez Reavie.

Early clubhouse leader Ryan Palmer showed those at the top of the leaderboard what was possible on Sunday as he made six birdies in a flawless 64 to finish the tournament on seven under.

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