Years ago there was a golf tournament in Knoxville, Tennessee that had a fascinating ending. It was a hole-in-one tournament. The rules said that whoever came closest to getting a hole-in-one on the 90-yard hole was the winner. You didn't have to actually make a hole-in-one to win. Just come close.

One man hit a terrible shot. It was so bad that it ricocheted off the scorer's tent, then miraculously bounced onto the fairway, where it hit another golfer's ball, and ricocheted again, finally coming to rest one inch from the cup.

Another golfer, meanwhile, stepped up to the tee, hit a beautiful shot that headed for the cup on the fly, bounced backward off the pin and stopped six inches from the cup.

So who was the winner--the golfer who made that beautiful straight-on shot or the one who w…