A New PGA Tour Season Is Here, Way Too Early Predictions For 2024, And A New Year's Resolution For Our Readers

We're so back. After taking a week off from Par Talk for Christmas Day, the weekly column makes its return on the first day of 2024 and we have an actual PGA Tour golf tournament to discuss. For those keeping track at home, there was a whopping 46 days between the final Fall swing event and the start of this week's Sentry Tournament of Champions in Hawaii. Quite the 'offseason.'

With a new year and new campaign upon us, that means we, just like everyone else, have to give our way too early predictions about what's in store this year. From major championship winners, general expectations, and what the hell is actually going to happen between the PGA Tour and Saudi PIF, we'll discuss it all.

Lastly, there's no better way I can hold myself accountable with a New Year's resolution than by writing it on the Internet for the entire world to see.

A Tournament For Champions And A Bunch Of Other Dudes

The Sentry Tournament of Champions is dead. One of the sneakier schedule changes on the PGA Tour this year was dropping 'Tournament of Champions' from this week's event and simply calling it The Sentry, which makes sense given most of the field wasn't actually a champion of anything in 2023.

If we're being honest, it's a win for the Tour to have the awareness to drop the gimmicky name instead of trying to pull a fast one on us, even though everyone is going to inevitably still refer to it as 'The Tournament of Champions.'

The Sentry at Kapalua features a 59-player field entirely made up of winners on the PGA Tour last season and players who finished inside the Top 50 in the FedEx Cup standings. It's also a no-cut, guaranteed payday for everyone in the field which always brings in the question of 'which players are there for a Hawaii vacation and which ones are taking things seriously.'

Golf fans are very well accustomed on what to expect this week with the main thing being taking it uber-deep in order to win. Cam Smith shot 34-under two years ago to win by a single shot while the winning score has been 23-under or lower five of the last six years.

We'll leave the in-depth preview and betting analysis for our guy Geoff Clark later in the week, we're just happy to have meaningful golf back on TV, even if it is late-night viewing for everyone not on the West Coast.

Let us rejoice, we have golf for the next 39 weeks, including a stop at the Olympics in August.

Predictions For The World Of Golf In 2024

Everyone loves some way too early predictions. It gives us all something to argue about for a few days before we forget what our predictions actually were and then completely change them the week before the events happening. It's truly a tradition unlike any other.

2024 Masters Winner: I hate to start this entire thing off with the chalkiest of chalk picks for Augusta, but I'll go with Scottie Scheffler to win his second green jacket this year. The man is just too good to only have one major to his name at this point and Augusta National is just too good of a fit. Another Masters win for Scheffler is inevitable, so why not this Spring?

2024 PGA Championship Winner: This year's PGA Championship will be played at Valhalla in Louisville and there may not be a better player-course fit here than Viktor Hovland. He's taken ginormous leaps in every facet of his game, has been forged in fire with Ryder Cup success and close calls in multiple majors last year, and very much oozes in confidence.

2024 U.S. Open Winner: Ludvig Aberg. I'm not sure I need to say anything else other than I'm not exaggerating when I say I think he could end up being the greatest driver of the golf ball ever. Give me his game off the tee and ability to be creative on some wonky green layouts to pick up his first of many major championships.

2024 Open Winner: Rory McIlroy simply has to snap his major championship drought as it reaches the decade mark this year. The last major of the year seems like a good a place as any. It'll be a romantic ending to the 2024 major slate, he'll cry, and everyone will try to forget he hadn't won a major in 10 years time.

The Most Annoying Player In 2024: See the above prediction.

Your New Favorite Player In 2024: It's another chalky one, but Aberg is the only answer here. We got a preview of the young man who looks like he was built to hit a golf ball at the Ryder Cup and when he picked up a win on the PGA Tour and DP World Tour. While expectations are incredibly high going into this season for the Swede it's as if not meeting them would be more of a shock than checking the many boxes.

Will The PGA Tour And Saudi PIF Actually Merge: You have to say yes, but as each day passes it seems less and less likely. The Tour calling up some private investors royally pissed off the Saudis and PIF governor Yassir Al-Rumayyan who in turn went out and signed Jon Rahm to LIV Golf. The two sides seem to be getting further and further apart, which is going to end with more punches being thrown, but maybe that's not a bad thing.

It's conspiracy theory-ish, but maybe Jay Monahan was playing the uber-long game here and wanted American investors to pony up and the Saudi link was just a smokescreen. That would have been insane to say six months ago, but it's only borderline insane today.

Keyword For 2024: More

January 1 is the one day of the year I think you're allowed to pat yourself on the back and I'll take that opportunity now to say that I think I've done a good job covering professional golf since joining OutKick in July 2022.

The difference between good and great, however, is a real thing and we're striving for the latter each and every day in this new year. In order to get there you all need more out of me and that's the plan in '24.

I never take it for granted that I get to write about golf and other sports for a living, so bringing more is the least I can do.

The written golf content is going to continue to flow, but trying some new things not only in that realm but in video form and on social is a goal I've set out for 2024. Hearing from the OutKick fans, whether it be general inquiries or someone telling me that my opinion stinks is always the best.

Reach out to me on X (Twitter) @itismarkharris or email me at mark.harris@outkick.com. Tell me what you want more of, want less of, or whatever else that's on your mind and let's continue to make OutKick the go-to sports website.