With Port Royal ranked the 56th easiest of the 58 courses on the PGA Tour last year and with all its par-fives reachable for everybody in the field, it is only ever the wind that can prevent it from being a professional player’s paradise.

And this week the Butterfield Bermuda Championship could prove more tricky than usual for some of the world’s best golfers as heavy winds threaten to disrupt play at some stage over the four days of competition.

The forecast is for winds to be gusting above 30mph for most of the day on Thursday and 40mph all weekend after some brief respite on Friday and that could be enough for play to be suspended at some point during the tournament with breezes above that speed able to blow balls across the putting green.

Given that forecast, the winning score should be far closer to the 15 under shot by Lucas Herbert and Brian Gay in 2021 and 2020 respectively, when winds were closer to what is predicted this week, than the 24 under shot by Camilo Villegas last year in better conditions.

The tournament has attracted just one player in the world’s top 50 this week and even the most ardent golf fan in Bermuda might struggle to recognise those likely to top the leaderboard on Sunday night, so here is a rundown of some familiar faces and likely contenders for victory.

It may be pushing things to consider Francesco Molinari a challenger given his fall down the rankings to 482nd since reaching a high of fifth in the world after winning The Open in 2018. However, world rankings have never been the greatest guide to success here with Villegas, Gay and Brendon Todd ranked 318th, 325th and 525th respectively when winning in Bermuda.

At his best Molinari would have never considered this event as part of his schedule and his best finish in 2024 is 46th at the Scottish Open in July, so it would be a shock if he were to capture his first tour title in five years.

Lucas Glover, 45, is the highest-ranked player in the field at 48th and won the US Open in 2009. He still displayed enough class to finish in the top 20 at The Masters this year and brings good form to the island after finishing third in two of his past three tournaments. However, he has a best finish of 45th in his two appearances at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship.

Previous winners Villegas and Seamus Power are back for another bite at the Port Royal cherry and it’s the latter who probably holds the better chance of becoming the first two-times winner of the event.

The Irishman has been to Bermuda four times, winning in 2022, finishing twelfth in 2021 and in the top 35 in his two earlier visits. Power has four top-15 finishes in his past five Tour appearances and should go well again.

Villegas finished second the week before he won this tournament last year but is in nothing like the same form this time around, missing the cut in six of his past seven tournaments.

Two Canadians, Nick Taylor and Mackenzie Hughes, ranked 61st and 63rd in the world respectively, are clearly worth mentioning.

Taylor finished 22nd in Bermuda a couple of years ago and has a win on the PGA Tour this year under his belt after winning the Phoenix Open in February, while Hughes is a player in good form after finishing fourth and eighth in his latest two tournaments.

Those looking for a player from outside North America to follow could do worse than to trek the course alongside Kevin Yu, from Chinese Taipei. Ranked 71st in the world, he won on the tour as recently as last month when successful in the Sanderson Farms Championship.

One player needing a good result is Daniel Berger, who is desperately fighting to retain his PGA Tour card after never looking close to losing it since joining the big boys a decade ago. A poor start to the year has left him staring down the barrel of losing his playing privileges but he has showed signs of turning the corner lately with a top ten and two top-40 finishes in his last three starts.

Too good to be playing in this tournament in previous years, Berger is a previous winner of the Pebble Beach Pro-am, which takes place over three different coastal courses and that suggests that he should thrive in breezy conditions.

The best name award at this year’s tournament goes to Maverick McNealy but he has the talent to back up his moniker. McNealy has finished 25th and 31st in his two previous visits to Bermuda and has three top-20 finishes in the last four months.