All 12 members of Europe's Ryder Cup team are set to tee it up in the BMW PGA Championship, still the flagship event of the DP World Tour even if its financial home and its spiritual home are now separate places.
This is where the heart of the old circuit beats, where many members of this field dreamed of winning. Even Billy Horschel, champion in 2021, talked about watching golf at Wentworth on television before heading out to practise as a young boy in Florida. To the likes of Shane Lowry, Tyrrell Hatton and the other British and Irish winners, it was as much a part of their early love affair as any major championship.
Wentworth's West Course, or the Burma Road as it became known, seems to have settled into itself again after the decidedly unsettling redesign led by Ernie Els more than a decade ago.
It is back as a par 72 and not an especially long one, with all four par-fives representing eagle opportunities. None of the par-fours are daunting to look at on the scorecard, even if the likes of holes nine and 15 can ruin them regardless.
It is by no means fearsome, whether the tournament takes place in May or September, and while it's been a dry summer some sting will have been taken out of the turf of late. Just how low players can go remains to be seen, but Lowry's 17-under winning total came in a 54-hole edition and something lower still is possibly on the agenda with a largely good weather forecast and a field this strong.
The rise of Viktor Hovland is neatly demonstrated by his position alongside 2014 champion Rory McIlroy at the top of the betting, but while cases can be made for each of the big three, I don't see a more likely winner than JON RAHM and have to make him the headline bet.
Rahm has undeniably been hit-and-miss since capturing the Masters in April, unable to match the relentless consistency of his peers at the top of the world rankings nor collect the titles Hovland has, but as a consequence we're able to back him at 8/1. That's the sort of price he's gone off to win against the best in the world, rather than the best in Europe.
He is absolutely deadly when coming home. This will be Rahm's 23rd regulation DP World Tour start (that is to say ignoring the Open) and he's won eight times already. Yes, three of those came in largely weak fields on home soil in Spain, but the other five are made up of two high-class Irish Opens and a hat-trick in the season finale in Dubai, where he's won three times in four visits.
Fitzpatrick struggled in the wake of his Harbour Town victory in the spring, managing one top-10 in his next 10 starts, but over the course of his last three he's been right back to his best.
Finishing second to Hovland in the BMW Championship was a fine effort – he was unfortunate to bump into one of the best rounds in memory from his teammate – and third place in Switzerland looked like being a couple of places better until some late bumps in the road.
Prior to that he'd been 11th in Prague, making very few putts, but his putter was good in Switzerland and I don't think he's all that far away from the form that saw him win the Rolex Series event in Abu Dhabi to begin the year.
That was his third DP World Tour title and while Perez does swing from excellence to mediocrity very quickly, a bit like MacIntyre, he has plenty of upside given the quality of opponent he's seen off for those three wins in four years.
We've seen glimpses of it since Abu Dhabi, with 12th in the PGA Championship placing him back on the Ryder Cup radar, and there wasn't much wrong with mid-pack finishes in the Scottish Open and the Open following a narrow missed cut in the British Masters.
Migliozzi is another whose good is very good, as we saw when he hit the shot of the year to capture the Open de France last October. That demanding test isn't the worst guide despite a very different aesthetic, while he's won on tree-lined courses in Kenya and Belgium, the latter very similar to Wentworth.
Although he wasn't able to use Paris as a springboard towards Rome, Migliozzi has been catching the eye for a while now. He was the 54-hole leader at the Belfry following 10th place in Germany, sat 11th at halfway in the Open, shot rounds of 61 and 63 in Crans, then opened 69-66 to lie sixth at halfway last week in Ireland.
Granted, the 40-year-old has had to settle for vice-captaincy in Rome but don't forget he began the year as a key part of the winning Hero Cup side, before contending immediately afterwards in Abu Dhabi when we were on at around 50/1.
Although largely quiet since, Molinari found a bit of form in the Czech Masters with back-to-back rounds of 67 to lie 14th with a round to go, and I like the fact he produced his best strokes-gained approach figures since this event last year. He'd already been driving the ball well, but his irons needed to improve and very much did.
The same goes for his short-game and Molinari ultimately suffered for a bad putting week, of which he's had plenty this year. Still, he's spiked on a handful of occasions and so comfortable is he at this course that he could finish ninth last year, on his first start in two months, despite holing very little then, either.
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