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More 2007 Reviews: Greatest moments | Clutch performances | Best finishes | Comeback players
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Best of '07 Videos: Bunker play | Eagles | More eagles | Target practice | Short game | Flat stick | Aces

Now that the 2007 PGA TOUR season is history -- and the inaugural FedExCup awarded to the game's No. 1 player, Tiger Woods -- our panel of experts wanted to take a look back at the biggest surprises of this historic year.

T.J. Auclair
PGATOUR.com Interactive Producer
Pick: This year's U.S. Open finish
Relive it: Sunday recap | U.S. Open multimedia
The disappointing ending to the U.S. Open at Oakmont. Argentina's Angel Cabrera sat around for nearly an hour to see if he'd be in an 18-hole Monday playoff. With pursuers Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk still on the course, everyone thought for sure that the world's top two players would make a charge over the final three holes, but it never happened. Kudos to Cabrera for his fine play, but the ending left me wishing for more.

Brett Avery
The Fantasy Insider
Pick: Angel Cabrera's win at the U.S. Open
Relive it: Sunday recap | U.S. Open multimedia
Difficult to label as an unexpected commodity a guy who has finished in the top 10 around the world nearly a dozen times in the past two years, but can anyone really say they saw the Angel Cabrera thing coming at the U.S. Open? Splitting his time between the European Tour and PGA TOUR means he's in the U.S. only for the biggest events, so it's a given that he tends to get lost in the crowd (one almost always headed up by Tiger Woods). But this year began particularly shakily with only one top 10 prior to the competition at Oakmont -- and that a tie for fifth in the BMW PGA Championship in Europe in his previous start. Big hitter, sprays it everywhere, nervous as hell: The new paradigm for U.S. Open contenders?

Lauren Deason
PGATOUR.com Editorial Coordinator
Pick: Diversity of major winners
Coverage: PGA Championship | Open Championship | U.S. Open | Masters
Tiger Woods won the first FedExCup, which was definitely not a shocker. But the fact that he won only one major was a bit of a surprise, as were the three first-timers who did win them. It's not that they weren't qualified. After all, Padraig Harrington and Europe had been long due for an Open Championship victory. Zach Johnson earned his Green Jacket fair and square, plus he proved it wasn't a fluke with a victory at the AT&T Championship a month later. Then there was Angel Cabrera, who was more of a surprise than the rest. He finished before Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk and had a nerve-wracking wait to see if they could catch him. When the two TOUR stars surprisingly didn't play well enough to beat the Argentine, Cabrera walked away with a major championship.

Melanie Hauser
PGATOUR.com Correspondent
Pick: Woody Austin becomes a cult hero
Relive it: Austin's Saturday both wet and wild | Video: Watch the splash
Woody Austin. Who knew he'd become a cult hero? Former bank teller-turned-super hero -- well, Aquaman anyway. And feared ping-pong champ. He comes out of nowhere to win the Stanford St. Jude Championship, pushes Tiger at the PGA, then makes his mark at the Presidents Cup. He and Phil Mickelson may have seemed like the odd couple, but ... whatever works. Woody's always been, well, Woody. A little cranky, very quirky, more than a little self-deprecating and self-abusive. But it took an international stage for people to appreciate him when he fell in the water, then bounced back to shrug it off and birdie the next three holes with some incredible golf.

Dave Lagarde
PGATOUR.com Correspondent
Pick: Angel Cabrera wins the U.S. Open
Relive it: Sunday recap | U.S. Open multimedia
His previous best finish in a major championship was a tie for fourth in the 1999 British Open, so when Argentine Angel Cabrera won the survival-of-the-fittest test at Oakmont Country Club in the 107th United States Open jaws dropped across the globe, even Cabrera's. "I watched all the majors on TV when I was a kid, and I never thought I would be here at this moment," Cabrera said at the trophy presentation.

John Maginnes
PGATOUR.com Contributor
Pick: Success of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup
Relive it: Complete coverage of the inaugural Playoffs
The fact that I get paid to put golf on the radio 25 hours a week has to be the biggest surprise every season that they let us do it. Golf on the radio -- who would have thought? But this isn't about me, it is about the biggest surprise of the year. For me, like most people, it has to be the success of the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup. Sure, you can poke your finger at some problems -- and trust me, they are being addressed. The competition over those four weeks was better than at any other time of the year. I can't promise you that Tiger will play all four next year, but you have to feel good about his chances to defend. The FedExCup and the playoffs are here to stay.

Helen Ross
PGATOUR.com Chief of Correspondents
Pick: Woody Austin becomes a star
Relive it: Austin's Saturday both wet and wild | Video: Watch the splash
I didn't pick his helter-skelter nosedive into the water beside the 14th green at Royal Montreal as my favorite moment -- although it was well worth every highlight film. Woody Austin does get my vote as the biggest surprise of 2007, though. First, the 43-year-old wins his first tournament in three years. Then, he stares down Tiger Woods in the final round of the PGA Championship, eventually finishing second. Finally, he provides the emotional spark the U.S. Presidents Cup Team needs at Royal Montreal. You have to wonder -- what will he do for an encore?

Dave Shedloski
PGATOUR.com Senior Correspondent
Pick: Zach Johnson wins The Masters
Relive it: Sunday recap | Audio: Masters Interviews

Perhaps part of the honor goes to Tiger Woods, the four-time Masters champion, who let go of a final-round lead in a major not once but twice in 2007, at the Masters and U.S. Open. But the fact that Johnson, who'd won once on TOUR previously, was there to seize the title -- and convincingly at that with a late birdie barrage -- was as impressive as it was eye-opening.