Whatever happens with Tiger Woods’s recovery from his horrible Tuesday car crash, it is worth marveling, from a purely competitive standpoint, at one of the greatest athletic careers in the history of the modern world.

This has nothing to do with whether one likes Woods and nothing to do with the younger Woods’s character flaws or the older Woods’s admirable maturation. The appreciation due him does not depend on how one “ranks” him vis-à-vis golfing greats Ben Hogan, Bobby Jones, and Jack Nicklaus. Instead, it is simply a recognition that Woods’s golfing achievements were almost cinematic in their temporal pacing and their astonishing excellence.