The ongoing duel between Jordan Spieth, Jason Day and Rory McIlroy notwithstanding, there is plenty to talk about otherwise as the PGA Tour rolls into 2016. From golf at the summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, to Phil Mickelson’s pursuit of the Career Grand Slam at Oakmont Country Club, to the Ryder Cup at Hazeltine National Golf Club, 2016 promises to be must-see TV, and potentially epic, if not historic. Before we move forward, however, let’s take a minute to revisit what happened in the 2016 wrap-around season on the PGA Tour.

2016 season to date

In seven official events, there were three winners under the age of 25 (Emiliano Grillo, Smylie Kaufman, and Justin Thomas) and six winners under the age of 32. Graeme McDowell, winner at the OHL Classic at Mayakoba, in a playoff where he beat both Jason Bohn and Russell Knox (winner at the WGC-HSBC Champions in China the week prior) was the oldest tournament winner at age 36. Kevin Kisner closed out the wrap-around season with a convincing maiden win at The RSM Classic in Sea Island, Georgia, putting to bed a calendar year to remember in which he had four runner-up finishes on the PGA Tour, including a memorable one to Rickie Fowler at The Players Championship. Kisner, Kevin Na, Brendan Steele, William McGirt, and Thomas are notably ranked in the top 5 in the PGA Tour’s All-Around Ranking to date for 2016.

The PGA Tour heads to warmer climates in January when opening in Hawaii for the Hyundai Tournament Champions and Sony Open before coming back to the mainland at the CareerBuilder Challenge and Farmers Insurance Open in southern California. More importantly, it is approximately 105 calendar days until the Masters Tournament, where Spieth, the 2015 PGA Tour Player of the Year, will defend his title against what will inevitably be an incredible and diverse field of the world’s professional golfers. For those curious, here are some important tournament dates in the 2016 PGA Tour season:

• April 7-10: Masters Tournament (Defending Champion, Jordan Spieth)
• May 12-15: The Players Championship (Defending Champion, Rickie Fowler)
• June 16-19: U.S. Open (Defending Champion, Jordan Spieth)
• July 14-17: The Open Championship (Defending Champion, Zach Johnson)
• July 28-31: PGA Championship (Defending Champion, Jason Day)
• August 11-14: Olympic Men’s Golf Competition (OMGC)

Apart from incorporating OMGC into the professional golf schedule, players (such as Spieth, Day and McIlroy) participating in The Open Championship (to be played at Royal Troon Golf Club) in Scotland will need to be ready for the final professional major just 11 days later when the PGA Championship is played at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J. To give some context in 2015, there were 22 days between those same events. The Open Championship has basically remained in its standard spot on the professional calendar, while the PGA Championship has been displaced by the addition of the OMGC.

It will be an action-packed 2016 and summer of professional golf never before experienced by either players or fans. Mark your calendars, set your DVRs, and place your bets as it is going to be well worth it. And before you sit down for your upcoming holiday festivities, put these PGA Tour players on your radar for a variety of reasons.

5 players to watch in 2016

Adam Scott

On Jan. 1, 2016, the long-awaited and much disputed anchoring ban takes effect and for players, like Scott, who have previously utilized some form of that style, it officially becomes the point of no return. As you likely already know, Scott made the change to a short putter permanently at the 2015 Presidents Cup, where in his Sunday singles match he handily beat Rickie Fowler 6&5, though posted a somewhat pedestrian 4-3 record overall. During the 2016 wrap-around season, Scott played in the CIMB Classic where he posted 63 on the final day to finish 2nd, only to finish 70th the next week at the no-cut WGC-HSBC Champions event.

In short, there’s no telling (as if there ever is) what 2016 and for that matter, the rest of Scott’s career looks like. Still a savage in the full swing realm (8th/184 players in Ball Striking in 2015 on the PGA Tour), Scott has historically scheduled his year around the professional majors and there seems to be little question that he will still compete at the big events. The question becomes, however, can he win in an era where the likes of Spieth, Day and McIlroy (as well as potentially Thomas, Patrick Rodgers and Tony Finau, among others) are only going to push harder in the short-term to keep pace with one another. Scott isn’t finished, but there’s real possibility he missed his chance to win multiple major championships.

Rickie Fowler

Clearly, Fowler isn’t flying stealth on the PGA Tour at this point, but the question in 2016 remains will he step up and into the same stratosphere that Spieth, Day and McIlroy presently reside. Fowler’s 2015 was the best of his career, as he won The Players Championship, Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open, and Deutsche Bank Championship. He also struggled at the Presidents Cup, however, winning only 1 point, and failed to post a top-10 in the professional majors.

In two events during the 2016 wrap-around season, Fowler posted solid finishes (T-25 and T-17) and made Sunday at the Hero World Challenge interesting, having fired 129 over the weekend in the Bahamas to make a run at eventual champion Bubba Watson. Fowler’s 2016 at the professional majors may not define his career — in fact, that’s unlikely — but his play on the biggest stages in golf will now start to define his ultimate legacy as a professional golfer.

Tony Finau

Finau was certainly a noticeable addition to the PGA Tour last year when he made 22 cuts in 31 events and posted 16 top-25 finishes, which placed him squarely in the conversation for Rookie of the Year. Nothing has seemingly deterred Finau from carrying that through, at least early on, into the 2016 season as he posted a top-35, top-20, and top-5 in 3 total events. Finau’s upside may be best explained by simply noting that during the 2015 PGA Tour season he was 2nd on the PGA Tour in Driving Distance with an average of 324.9 yards, while finishing 40th in Strokes Gained: Putting.

Golf courses at the professional level are only likely to get longer and Finau’s game seems tailor made for the PGA Tour. It would be premature to say Finau needs to prove he is capable of winning in 2016 as he is just 26 years old, but so is the current world No. 3, McIlroy. There is no doubt that Finau has to continue building upon his very successful rookie year in order to keep up with giants like Spieth and Day.

Will Wilcox

Wilcox finished 2nd in the All-Around Ranking last season on the PGA Tour (just behind Day and ahead of Spieth), but his participation in the FedExCup finals was cut short by a knee injury. While the injury was not ultimately a long-term issue, as Wilcox played 4 events in the 2016 wrap-around season, only time will truly tell whether Wilcox is going to be regularly competing on the PGA Tour long-term. In 2015, the numbers seem relevant to that point, however, because Wilcox during his second full year on the PGA Tour he finished in the top 25 in all of the following categories: Driving Accuracy Percentage; Greens in Regulation Percentage; Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green; Strokes Gained: Total; Eagles; Birdie Average; Sand Save Percentage; Total Driving; and Ball Striking.

Wilcox seems headed for his first PGA Tour win in 2016 when all cylinders are firing and likely to improve upon his 75th place finish in the 2015 FedExCup. But as golf across all spectrums has shown time and time again, there is nothing absolute in the game. Wilcox seems to have the pieces and it will be interesting to see how everything eventually comes together with 2016 being that first real test where Wilcox is deemed a player to watch.

Kevin Kisner

Kisner made a name for himself, as noted above, on the PGA Tour with four runner-up finishes in the 2015 calendar year. Still young at 31 years old, Kisner has evidenced a play-to-win attitude when in a position to do so, despite failing to close until The RSM Classic, as well as a hunger for more wins. Indicative of the progression making Kisner a player to watch, consider the following relative to his season earnings and FedExCup finish over the past five years or so: 2011-$270,170 in earnings (195th-FedExCup); 2012-$346,216 (153rd); 2013-$6,180 (N/A); 2014-$954,497 (104th); 2015-$3,567,939 (21st); and 2016 (to date)-$1,951,632 (1st).

More so than some other players in his age bracket (30+ years old), don’t sleep on Kisner given his propensity to put himself in the thick of things. In that vein, Kisner will likely grab an additional PGA Tour win in 2016, if not two, and start moving deeper into the weekend mix at the professional majors over the next few years.