We get to see Muirfield Village for the fourth time in little more than two years as the Memorial Tournament again serves as the bridge between the PGA Championship and the US Open. Some of these events from April to July get lost a little, others act as practice grounds for the major to come, but the Memorial stands up on its own: this is a fabulous tournament hosted by one of the finest players in the sport's history in Jack Nicklaus, and the course he designed is presented to a standard no major can hope to surpass. Throw in those famous milkshakes, and you have yourself a party.

While Justin Thomas and Scottie Scheffler are both absent, this is a suitably strong field and it's increasingly hard to envisage the sort of result which has been thrown up here in the past. David Lingmerth seeing off Justin Rose and William McGirt holding firm against the likes of Dustin Johnson reminds us all that no golf tournament can be limited to a select group of elite players, but there are some leaderboards which feel harder for the lower-ranked player to penetrate than others. This is one of them, and Sunday's will be packed with top-class golfers.

Such a likelihood is underlined not just by the recent Muirfield Village roll-of-honour, which reads Collin Morikawa, Jon Rahm, Patrick Cantlay, but for how it should probably read: Thomas, Rahm, Rahm. First, Thomas somehow opened the door for Morikawa to beat him in a play-off in the one-off Workday Charity Open, and then last year we witnessed something perhaps even more dramatic, as Rahm walked off the 18th green on Saturday with a six-shot lead, only to be told he'd tested positive for Covid-19 and would be withdrawn from the event.

Not that Rahm should feel any regret. None of us can say for sure, but there is at the very least a very strong chance he would not have come out and won the US Open on his next start but for the harsh penalty he received here. Rahm dealt with it fantastically well, regathered himself, and arrived at Torrey Pines feeling somehow like he was meant to win his first major at the site of his first PGA Tour win. Then he went out and made it happen.

Given his impeccable course credentials and perhaps even the sense of unfinished business he'll still feel, Rahm's holds obviously strong claims. He has to bounce back from missing the cut in the PGA Championship but remember who he played with over the first two rounds, in the worst of the weather? Scottie Scheffler, who came out and very nearly won the Charles Schwab Challenge to confirm that one bad week in bad circumstances really doesn't change anything as far as the bigger picture goes.

Rahm might do the same and saving on him to cover the week makes some sense, but I think this is a really good chance for RORY MCILROY to add his name to a list of world-class winners this spring, and he's preferred each-way.

Muirfield Village has always looked a good course for McIlroy. Like so many former winners, ranging from the surprising (Lingmerth) to the obvious (Rahm), he's an exceptional driver of the ball who relishes the visuals and the width of a Nicklaus design like this one. It's a course McIlroy can go out and attack, and there's no doubt victory here can be built on the strongest club in his bag.

We often describe Nicklaus courses as 'second shot', owing to the space he and his design team generally afford off the tee, and it's a fair description of this course for all that it probably does underestimate the benefits of driving it long. Morikawa beating Thomas in a play-off is a very strong pointer in that direction, and Rahm's approach play last year had been out of this world until he was told he would not be able to return for the final round.

Approach play is often the area of McIlroy's game which is the most exasperating, and clearly it has been less impressive in recent years than it was during his dominant run in the middle of the last decade. But there are encouraging signs at the moment that his work with long-time coach Michael Bannon is helping, as he's ranked 13th, 12th and 15th across his last three starts. These have been his best three performances of the year and in terms of his bottom-line numbers, they're improving: +3.24, +4.66, +4.85.

If he continues to move in the right direction, it'll be hard to keep McIlroy out of the frame at a course where he boasts four top-10 finishes, two of them when putting badly. He's generally putted these fast, contoured greens well, and has shown several times how much he enjoys the test which Muirfield Village presents off the tee. The missing ingredient in recent years has been his approach play, but seldom has he arrived with that aspect of his game so healthy as it is now.