Perhaps the masterplan was all geared around making everyone care about the Rocket Mortgage Classics of this world. Some of us needed no assistance, of course, but after three weeks of permanently top-class, high-stakes golf, maybe there will be more people who understand the beauty and importance of things that are one step below that. Or maybe a lot of people will just switch off from the sport altogether as they gear up for the Open in a few weeks. Both are valid.

There's no ambiguity when it comes to who exactly will most celebrate the return of a normal PGA Tour event: rank-and-file members, mules, whatever you want to call them. When people tell you it's a great time to be a professional golfer because a few of them are making more money than anyone could reasonably argue they are actually worth, think of the Korn Ferry Tour graduates, those DP World Tour members who came over in January and anyone else who can't get a game in a Signature Event. For many of them, it's not been great.

Take Kevin Dougherty for example. He's in his 30s, never going to be a superstar. He's expendable from the Tour's perspective, make no mistake, and you can form a strong argument that he's earned about as much as he should've earned from the skills he's shown. Still, he did manage to get a PGA Tour card under the rules set out by the PGA Tour and he's played to about a Tour-average standard since then. Now, with July approaching, he's playing in his 15th event, and he's doing so from well short of the FedEx Cup cut-off line.

This is the start of a busy stretch for players like Dougherty but if he takes every opportunity currently available to him, he'll play 20 times this season, each of them with a cut. Maybe that's right. Maybe it should be this hard. But there's no denying whatsoever that he's had the odds stacked against him, when they're in favour of someone like Webb Simpson, who has collected FedEx Cup points in events he's been invited to play, which often do not have cuts or at the very least feature far fewer players.

For others, like Tom Kim and Cameron Young, the challenge has been less about the money or the points, more about how exactly you win tournaments when you play a high-class schedule. Since Scottie Scheffler remembered how to put, he's won all the Signature Events he's played in. When he took a week off, Rory McIlroy did what he does at Quail Hollow. Crumbs are worth more than ever, but they're still crumbs.

Kim was brilliant last week and is back at the top of his game, but this will be his ninth start in a row. Young looks lightly-raced by comparison but he's on week five and while this looks an obvious opportunity following his runner-up finish in 2022, you don't need many excuses not to chase his first win at 14/1. Fatigue following a Travelers 59 is all that I need.

Of the favourites, MIN WOO LEE stands out and while it's his course debut, Detroit should suit him down to the ground.

Last year's renewal confirmed that anyone can contend here as Adam Hadwin, Rickie Fowler, Collin Morikawa and Taylor Pendrith were the four main protagonists ahead of Taylor Moore, and this is a particularly mixed bunch.

However, Tony Finau had previously dominated a bomber-heavy renewal, Cameron Davis and Joaquin Niemann were two-thirds of the 2021 play-off, and a year earlier we had ourselves a US Open rehearsal as Bryson DeChambeau saw off Matthew Wolff before they did battle again at Winged Foot.

With Cameron Champ also in the mix back then it's pretty clear that this classical, tree-lined par 72, which is long enough on paper, has become vulnerable to those willing to attack it off the tee. Perhaps that's why there's a wholesale renovation planned for next summer, aimed at restoring Donald Ross's original layout.

Lee is arguably the best driver in this field at the moment and his blend of prodigious length and red-hot putting does call to mind a peak version of Champ or indeed DeChambeau. And I like too that he arrives fresh: without invites to Signature Events (!), he's played five times dating back to the Masters, never finishing outside the top 30 despite three of these being majors.

A fortnight ago he was 21st at the Ross-designed Pinehurst, adding to 17th at Oak Hill last May, and reports of a soft, vulnerable golf course are ideal. This is arguably the best chance he's had to date on the PGA Tour and while in golf that still means the odds are stacked against him, the classy young Australian, far fresher than those above him in the betting, can deliver a big performance.

Three years ago I sided with Davis Thompson at 400/1 on a sponsor's invite and he opened with a nine-under 63, which remains the course record, before understandably fading. He returned to play well at about 150/1 last year and has taken his game up another level since, but that means odds closer to 28/1 and it's weeks since he was the same price for a Myrtle Beach Classic headed by Erik van Rooyen and Ben Griffin.

Ultimately I can't put him up at these prices for all that I'm a huge fan and I would say there is valid concern around the suitability of a shootout. Yes, he almost won the AmEx, which is a shootout in the purest sense, but his putter rarely gets red-hot – it's a year since he ranked inside the top 10 for a tournament – and it may well need to if he's to get off the mark.

That club would have to be the concern regarding STEPHAN JAEGER but he's been fifth and ninth over the last two renewals and, on both occasions, he putted well having putted badly just a week earlier.

Hopefully lightning strikes thrice because everything else is in place for the winner of the Houston Open, who since then has played eight times, seven of them in majors of Signature Events. Only at the Nelson did he drop in grade.

Throughout this run, Jaeger has continued to produce good results, with 18th at Harbour Town, 20th at Craig Ranch, 21st in the Wells Fargo and the US Open and 31st last week all respectable. He got better as the Travelers progressed, too, shooting 67-65-67 over the closing three rounds following a slow start in Connecticut.

Jaeger hit it really well over those final 54 holes last week and we can perhaps draw some optimism from what happened prior to his breakthrough win at Memorial Park. There he'd gone 35-9, putting well, so form figures of MC-5-9 here, and the putting improvement that powered them, mean he's looking to repeat the trick to some degree.