A suitably quiet fortnight of PGA Tour golf concludes with THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson, a shouty-headlined tournament which is most notable for the fact that two of the very best golfers Texas has produced (hold on, did Texas really 'produce' New Jersey's Scottie Scheffler?) really are desperate to win it.

Scheffler and JORDAN SPIETH both began their careers in this, Scheffler finishing 22nd as a lanky teenager a few years after Spieth had done even better in 16th, and without them there wouldn't be much to shout about. With them... well, there still isn't, but we are talking about two genuine stars who will form part of the PGA Championship story in just a couple of weeks.

For the first time in an age it's possible to argue that Scheffler isn't the world's best player, not that I'd necessarily take that view, and somehow the man who never plays badly will go to Quail Hollow with a point to prove. Spieth meanwhile has another go at completing the career grand slam, this time on the heels of Rory McIlroy and at a course we know he can perform at.

Should either go there on the back of a win in an event which means so much to them then we'd have a storyline to rival that of McIlroy's return to a course he adores and it's certainly possible, as this is a weak tournament made weaker still by the way some of its supposedly better players have been performing of late.

As for Burns, without his 13th place at Harbour Town I'd have struggled to build a case but that might just be the performance which marks a return to relevance for a player who also has a couple of wins here in Texas to his name.

Burns drove the ball really well in the Heritage for what is pound-for-pound his best performance at a fiddly golf course where he can't put his power to use, unlike this one. Prior to it he'd been good off the tee in the Masters and with his putter firing, it's his iron play which has been the problem during a quiet spring.

It was better towards the end of the Heritage though and having led the field in strokes-gained tee-to-green here when runner-up to Lee back in 2021, I'm hopeful that Craig Ranch, where he dominated a section of Q-School once upon a time, again proves just the sort of test he needs.

Burns is one of the top five putters in this field and with the course lengthened since last year, I do still lean towards longer drivers despite the fact that Kohles, who is short off the tee, ought to have won. Should Burns produce an above-average display with his approach shots, he'd be a massive threat to all.

With bookmakers for the most part scrimping on the places this week, and the nature of the event combined with Scheffler's obvious threat, I'd rather reduce stakes and split them win-only on Burns and Spieth. To my eye they are clearly the biggest dangers, especially with Sungjae Im having gone home to Korea to miss the cut last week.

Given that Si Woo Kim and Ben An both struggle with the putter and that Pendrith, who has to defend for the first time, also can, I really don't see many obvious candidates towards the front of this market.

One exception is MACKENZIE HUGHES and anything 28/1 and bigger rates good value about the capable Canadian.

Hughes is known for being one of the best putters around but he's actually still losing strokes so far this year after a poor start, which in effect means there's been a lot of promise in 10 appearances since a sloppy return in the Sony Open.

That promise has only increased lately, with 10th place on a long, soft course in Houston followed by third at Harbour Town, where he was among the best of the rest behind champion Justin Thomas and subsequent Zurich Classic winner Andrew Novak.