Just as the new year begins, so too does the new USPGA Tour season, and some of the multi-millionaires competing on it are not happy.

Vijay Singh says it is too early in the year to start the 2008 Tour, but had he been back in Europe they would have begun in early November of 2007!

Are there simply too many tournaments? Will this saturation lead to a lack of interest from spectators and televison viewers?

Should other formats of the game be played more by the top players rather than the regulation 72-hole strokeplay for the majority of the year?

So what will 2008 bring in golfing terms? There were first-time major winners in the first three big events last year, before Tiger Woods, second in both of the first two majors, restored order by claiming the USPGA.

Woods looked in awesome form at the end of last season and has spoken of his hunger for greater success in 2008.

Are there enough potential major winners to stop him taking one of the big four prizes for the first time since 2004, and is there anyone who has the capabilities to get close to his top ranking?

Phil Mickelson appeared to have discovered the art of winning majors having claimed the Masters twice in three years and also the 2005 PGA Championship, but since imploding at the 2006 US Open he has not made the significant advances expected.

And what of the current crop of British players? They are all no doubt well aware that there has been no winner from the British Isles since Paul Lawrie's surprise Open triumph at Carnoustie in 1999.

While Paul Casey, Ian Poulter and David Howell have failed to take that elusive, sizeable step from talented tour player worth a few quid to major champion, Justin Rose has improved consistently in recent years.

Does he represent Britain's best chance of a major title? How influential might Irishman Padraig Harrington's marvellous Open win at Carnoustie be on the younger players?

What of Harrington? Few would disagree that he has worked assiduously to achieve his success, but now that he has won his major does he have the game and the desire to press on and capture more? Can he challenge the world's elite players consistently or, like Lawrie, will one major be his limit?

And how will the prodigious teenager Rory McIllroy fare? Can the precocious Irishman really qualify for the Ryder Cup? Is it too soon to plunge him into the cauldron that is the bi-annual battle with the Americans, or is his youthful, buccaneering style exactly what is needed to help Europe retain the crown?