What I'll Remember about 2010: Fall Series heroic hole-outs

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Jonathan Byrd (left) hugs his caddie after making a walk-off ace; Rocco Mediate (right) can't believe his luck at the Frys.com Open.

PGATOUR.COM asked its staffers and freelancers what they will remember about the 2010 season. For the archived list of essays, click here.

Jonathan Byrd didn't get to properly soak up the moment of arguably golf's best shot of 2010.

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• Click here for more essays • What will you remember? • Watch Byrd's playoff ace

He never saw the drawing 6-iron that hopped into the cup for a hole-in-one on the fourth playoff hole of the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, as darkness had settled over Las Vegas. Had no idea where the ball ended up until cheers from 200 yards away traveled back to the tee, and his caddie confirmed it.

He didn't know what to do next, and how could he have? Byrd had made holes-in-one before, but this was unchartered territory on the PGA TOUR, the walk-off ace. (Well, sort of a walk-off -- Martin Laird and Cameron Percy did have opportunities to tie, but those were odds that not even Vegas could handle. They both hit their shots in the water.)

"I was kind of in a daze and confused when it happened, because I didn't see it go in and then didn't know really how to react to it," Byrd said.

Byrd never got to pluck the ball out of the hole, either, as he was whisked away to a trophy presentation and interviews.

Contrast that to the other holeout-crazy event of the Fall Series, one week prior to Vegas at the Frys.com Open. There, 47-year-old Rocco Mediate won for the first time in eight years by holing out each day of the event.

First day was an ace, second day was a par-4 hole-out, third day was a par-5 holed wedge and Sunday was one more holeout on a par-4. Since 1983, 14 other players had recorded at least one eagle in each round of a four-round event, but not like this.

"I haven't holed four shots from the fairway in 10 years," Tom Lehman said when asked about Mediate's feat a month later at the Champions Tour finale. "The odds of that are so off the charts that it's almost incomprehensible."

Mediate knew that. He just got to soak them up a little more, enjoying them daily for an entire event. By the weekend, he was shrugging his shoulders and tossing clubs in disbelief at it all.

So, what's more amazing -- that kind of day-after-day luck or a one-shot tournament winner?

Or just the fact we could even ask that question after consecutive weeks in the Fall Series?