In the history of golf, no golfer has ever played golf better than Tiger Woods has played golf.

Yeah, that sentence could have been shorter, but it’s hard to be loud in print, so one does what one can to get the point across, and if we’re going to talk about Tiger Woods, that’s where it begins.

Will he ever play competitive golf again? It’s hard to be believe he might, but Alex Smith became a quarterback again, so anything’s possible.

Will he ever play golf again, period? Or, if he can’t play it at a professional level, would he even want to? Good questions.

Will he ever walk again without assistance? Another good question.

We don’t know as little about the Feb. 23 single-car wreck that somehow spared his life as we did the day it occurred, the day after and the day after, but we still don’t know much.

Did he fall asleep?

Did he take his eyes off the road, texting?

Does he frequently drive at dangerous speeds, so fast he had no time to slow before he’d lost control and his vehicle had rolled several hundred feet?

We just don’t know.

All we really know is he suffered several compound fractures and a crushed ankle and it doesn’t sound very promising.

Before nightfall the day of the wreck, several heavy hitter writers were out with their wisdom.

They didn’t have a great deal to offer, but it was Tiger Woods and the moment demanded words so they produced them.

More than a week later, don’t look for wisdom here, just perspective we’re now allowed to consider given that his career, barring a miracle much bigger than winning the 2019 Masters — his 82nd PGA Tour victory, 15th major and fifth green jacket — comes to pass.

Doing that, the starting gate is that first sentence up there. Nobody’s ever played the game as well as Tiger has played it.

The funny thing about it, though, is it doesn’t make him the greatest golfer of all time, either.

Tiger, more than anybody, made it about the majors and Jack Nicklaus still has three more than he does. Not that second place matters, but Jack has 19 of those, too, and Tiger only six and, yes, 37 top-two major finishes may be the most insane thing in sports beyond Miracle on Ice, Chaminade beating Virginia and Buster Douglas decking Mike Tyson.

How about the most amazing accomplishment(s) in golf history.

In a career and in a season, Tiger gets neither one of those either.

In a career, Ben Hogan gets it for winning 12 PGA Tour events and six majors — three U.S. Opens, two Masters, one Open Championship — after the a collision with a Greyhound bus that would have killed him and his wife, though both survived after Hogan, just before impact, threw himself across the front seat in an effort to spare her, not him, but saved them both.

In a season, Byron Nelson gets it for winning 11 straight tournaments and 18 in all in 1949, posting a scoring average record of 68.34 on less-than-pristine fairways and choppy greens that stood for 55 years until Tiger’s 68.17 in 2000.

Of course, for achievement spanning more than one season, Tiger gets it for his personal slam, winning the 2000 U.S. Open, Open Championship, PGA and 2001 Masters, making him the reigning champ of all four majors until Retief Goosen claimed the 2001 U.S. Open in an 18-hole playoff over Mark Brooks.

There was a time Tiger claimed the 72-hole scoring mark at all four majors. Stunningly, he owns none of them now.

Dustin Johnson’s 268 at the last Masters set a new mark at Augusta National; Rory McIlroy’s 268 at Congressional in 2011 is the reigning U.S. Open mark; Henrik Stenson’s 264 at Troon made history at the 2016 Open Championship; and Jason Day set the PGA standard, shooting 268 at Whistling Straits in 2015.

But none of their primes have been in the same neighborhood as Tiger’s, nor have their primes lasted as long as Tiger’s. And while Nicklaus’ prime indeed lasted longer than Tiger’s, it never burned as white hot as Tiger’s.

It’s horrendous it’s taken a near-death and seemingly career-snapping experience to spur such examination, but the brain goes where it goes.

Bobby Jones gave us the Masters and practically invented golf as something Americans cared about. Arnold Palmer brought it to the masses. Jack Nicklaus enjoyed the sport’s most successful career and Tiger Woods has played it better than all of them.

If golf gets to put a fifth face on its Mount Rushmore, I want to give it Tom Watson, though I’m not sure he’s more deserving than Hogan or Walter Hagen and part of me wants to give it to Charlie Sifford, Lee Elder or Calvin Peete, anyway.

Let’s hope Tiger gets to walk the course again. Let’s hope he can chip and putt comfortably, just as something to do. Let’s hope he can watch his kids play pain free enough to help them read a few putts.

Let’s not care if he has any more miracles in him. He’s done enough.

Nobody’s done it better.