TPC Southwind and the FedEx St Jude Classic is the final stop on the road to the US Open, and many in this week's field will be fighting fatigue having taken part in the so-called 'longest day in golf', with 36-hole qualifiers for the season's second major completed on Monday night.
Assessing the worth of form in those shootouts is difficult enough before considering which players are likely to withdraw from this event having taken care of business. Adam Scott will certainly do so, but what of Keegan Bradley and Russell Knox, for instance? Knox has played five weeks running and would benefit from giving this a swerve, but will the lure of a winnable event on a course which should suit prove too strong?
As for Bradley, he's put together successive big weeks and, given that it's almost six years since he last won an event and the season doesn't end at Shinnecock, can he afford to skip one he had a chance to win on his first and only start way back in 2011?
Perhaps the best approach is to focus on those we know will tee it up at Southwind, a par 70 which Phil Mickelson said last week plays brilliantly, even if it doesn't always look much on television. That feels like a fair assessment of this TPC layout, one whose primary defence is a collection of long par-fours which, combined, make for a real challenge even if none is particularly daunting in isolation.
The formula when it comes to winning has varied down the years. Short, straight players have always had a chance here - the likes of Brian Gay and Ben Crane two obvious examples - but the last couple of renewals have seen a shift towards longer, younger types, albeit each had to demonstrate some kind of control. Daniel Berger broke through with his first win thanks largely to a brilliant tee-to-green performance, and he didn't need to putt well when defending last year; on both occasions, ball-strikers and bombers laid down the biggest challenge.
One thing notable about Berger's love for the course is that it developed rapidly. He was comfortable here on arrival, owing perhaps to the Florida-like climate and bermuda greens, and that allowed his long-game to shine. Berger won on his first visit to TPC Southwind, just as Harris English, Lee Westwood and Dustin Johnson had done earlier in the decade; others, like Mickelson and Steve Stricker, returned after lengthy breaks to chase home winners and this is a course which does not take a whole lot of knowing. As many have said, it's right there in front of you.
With that in mind, this looks like an excellent opportunity for Tony Finau to land his second PGA Tour win.
At 18th in strokes-gained tee-to-green, Finau certainly looks the part on paper when we look at recent winners of the event and it could even be significant that his victory at TPC Stonebrae on the Web.com Tour came at the chief expense of Berger and Fabian Gomez, who between them have won the last three renewals of the St Jude Classic.
More relevant is his excellent play throughout the season, so often on demanding courses, and there was much to like about Finau's return from a three-week break at the Memorial Tournament last week. With all aspects of his game firing, he closed with his best round of the week for 13th place and should now be focused on what could be a career-changing fortnight.
I wrote prior to the Memorial that the elite players who make up the front of the market always tend to prove vulnerable, perhaps distracted by the major championship which is fast approaching, and that again proved to be the case. I think it applies here, too, when we consider that the best players so often go well without winning; DJ's victory is an exception, but he'd missed most of the spring due to injury and needed to fully apply himself on his second start back.
Berger certainly had no excuse when it came to giving this event his full attention, searching as he was for his breakthrough and then seeking to defend, and the fact that Finau's sole win so far came in a low-key Puerto Rico Open means that he, too, should understand the significance of this opportunity.
Finau's form prior to majors is strong - he's made all eight cuts, with three top-eight finishes including in two of his last three - and in a field which is easy to pick apart beyond the four who sit ahead of him in the market, he looks ideally placed to take advantage.
When English won here in 2013, I put up eventual seventh Shawn Stefani, who led through 54 holes and has since added a second top-10 finish at Southwind. Part of the case related to certain correlations with Copperhead, home of the Valspar Championship, and that helps make the case for Finau as he was fifth there in 2017.
It also points towards the other class act I like the look of here, 2016 Valspar champion Charl Schwartzel.
With wins in Florida and, of course, Georgia, playing in the southern states seems to suit the South African and prior to last week's missed cut at the Memorial, he'd returned to his best with ninth in the Wells Fargo and second in the PLAYERS Championship.
Schwartzel will have been disappointed not to feature at Muirfield Village, but I do like the fact that he followed a nightmare 77 with a second-round 69 as he's not always been known as a player to fight for his score.
One bad round since the middle of April is certainly easy to forgive, especially when you consider that Schwartzel was second here last year, despite a third-round 74. The circumstances were similar as he'd produced a massive performance in the spring, this time at the Masters, but his performance at the Memorial was not of the standards expected.
Clearly, Southwind is a suitable golf course and his long game has improved beyond measure of late, just in time for another crack at this title. His performance at Sawgrass was especially encouraging as, in his words, it's an event Schwartzel has "skipped willingly" before as it just doesn't play to his strengths.
"It's been feeling good for about a month, two months now," Schwartzel said there. "It just hasn't sort of kicked in. I think playing with Louis (Oosthuizen at the Zurich Classic" freed me up a bit, and I've got good feelings. I feel like I'm playing the way I should play."
Schwartzel looks fully focused right now and should be expected to go very well.