It was the deciding round of play of the 1983 U.S. Open golf tournament. A player named Larry Nelson was tied for first place. But then he hit a difficult situation. His approach shot to the sixteenth green left him sixty-two feet from the hole. His fans groaned. In the world of golf, sinking a sixty-two-foot putt is about as likely as a hole-in-one.

Larry Nelson paused for a long moment. Then he raised his head, sized up the terrain, and stroked his ball. It rolled downhill for a spell, then up an incline, then down another slope, and up another, and finally it curved, and then Ker plunk! into the hole it went. Some called it the shot of the year.

Bolstered by this magnificent putt, Larry Nelson went on to win the tournament, his first victory following a two-year slump. 

One of the re…