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By Lauren Deason
PGATOUR.com Editorial Coordinator

It's time to say goodbye to 2006 and with it we bid farewell to a few special people. The game of golf lost a legend this year, with the passing of consummate gentleman Byron Nelson, but he left his mark on so many players and fans that it's unfathomable that he should ever be forgotten.

On the Champions Tour, another golfing great said adieu, as Arnold Palmer retired from competition. As hard as it is to let go of some of the best to ever play this sport, knowing that no one can take their place, the history books are still wide open and several up-and-comers are itching to make an indelible mark.

Loren Roberts and Jay Haas stood out in 2006, with four wins apiece, and they should continue their friendly rivalry in the new year. But in 2007 they will face even tougher competition, as World Golf Hall of Fame members Nick Price, Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer and Seve Ballesteros age onto the Tour.

The Tour has seen a changing of the guard over the past few years and that will continue in 2007, as some of the top players in the game take over for their best-to-ever-play counterparts.

Jeff Sluman will be among the big names turning 50 in 2007. (Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)

1. What will be the top story of 2007?

By now, it's pretty well known that big changes are underway on the PGA TOUR, with the advent of the new FedExCup competition. But equally exciting things are happening on the Champions Tour and the big story in 2007 will be the arrival of new faces nearly every week. Not only will an impressive rookie class debut, as Price, Faldo, Ballesteros, Langer, Mark O'Meara, and Jeff Sluman all turn 50 throughout the year, but there is also a new qualifying system in place. The top-30 finishers from the 2006 Champions Tour q-school will have to compete in a qualifying tournament in order to make it into that week's event. This changing dynamic will create a totally different Tour from the one that existed just a few years ago.

2. Who will be the breakout player of 2007?

Chip Beck is destined in 2007 to win his first professional event in 14 years. Beck did everything right after joining the Champions Tour in September of 2006, earning five top-25 finishes in five events, including a second, a tie for second and a third. He nearly won at the AT&T Championship, falling short in the end as Fred Funk birdied three of the last four holes to overtake him. Still, Beck's game was just too hot at the end of the year and look for him to come out of the gates strong and get a victory in the first few months.

3. Who's the newcomer to watch?

This is like standing in front of the Christmas Day dessert table and being forced to pick just one, when all are equally good in their own way. So how can we choose the top newcomer in 2007, when four World Golf Hall of Fame members plus several other notables are on the table? The crème de la crème of this bunch, though, is going to be Langer, who finished first in two events in December of 2006, at the World Golf Championships-Barbados World Cup, with teammate Marcel Siem, and the Del Webb Father-Son Challenge, with son Stefan. He turns 50 in late August and should play well enough in the final part of the year to earn a spot in the season-ending event, the Charles Schwab Cup Championship, where only the top-30 players on the money list are eligible to play.

4. Who will win the Charles Schwab Cup and why?

In the perfect world, it will be Loren Roberts, who had a disappointing loss to Jay Haas in last year's competition. Roberts won the first three events in 2006 and had an astonishing 18 top-10 finishes on the year. The two were thisclose in Charles Schwab Cup points for most of the year and the Cup went to Haas by a mere 20 points after Roberts missed a 3-foot putt on the final hole of the final tournament. Roberts' consistency is what suggests that he isn't going away in 2007 and, as one of the best putters on Tour, he won't miss a Cup clincher two years in a row.