What we know (and don't know) for the 2024 men's golf season

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The 2024 men's golf season teed off today in Hawaii with the opening round of the Sentry. The 59-player tournament is reserved for those who won a PGA Tour event last year or finished in the top 50 of the FedEx Cup standings.

It's the first of eight "signature" stops on the tour, each offering a $20-million US purse. These form the backbone of the season, along with the $25-million Players Championship in March and the four majors, beginning with the Masters in April. The season ends with the three FedEx Cup playoff events, culminating with the Tour Championship on Labour Day weekend in Atlanta, where the winner will walk away with $25 million — up from the $18 million that Norway's Viktor Hovland collected last year.

Along with those staggering sums of money and the glory of a major title, golfers will compete for Olympic medals this August outside Paris. Meanwhile, the greatest player of all time is trying for another comeback, and the future of the sport remains troublingly unclear as the murky "partnership" announced last June between the PGA Tour and its bitter rival LIV Golf is still up in the air.

Here are a few of the angles to follow this men's golf season:

Tiger Woods is back (sort of).

The GOAT placed 18th in the 20-player Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas a month ago — Woods' first tournament since he had ankle surgery shortly after withdrawing from the Masters last April. He also teamed up with his son Charlie to tie for fifth in last month's informal PNC Championship.

Tiger, who turned 48 last week, appears unlikely to add to his 15 major titles as he