"What I love about golf -- what I think we all love about it -- is the challenge."

ESPN The Magazine is out with its "Perfection Issue," adorned on the cover by Tiger Woods. And if his essay is any indication, it's a real barn burner.

What I love about golf -- what I think we all love about it -- is the challenge. The game is not a game of perfection, it's a game of misses. I guess you could say it's a perfect game played by imperfect people. But that's the beauty and the art of playing this game.

Someone once asked me to describe golf perfection.

Actually, ESPN The Magazine did.

I don't think it exists. And if it does, I wouldn't know it. In 1997, I shot 59 at Isleworth. There was a nine-hole stretch where I was 10-under par. That's probably the closest I've ever come to perfection on a scorecard. Where I was looking is where I was hitting it. When I putted, the cup looked like the size of a paint bucket.

Amazingly, this was "told to" Gene Wojciechowski, whose lively style could turn the most dreary family holiday letter into a must read. But even Genno couldn't save this one.