As a golfer Tiger Woods is the best there is. By a considerable distance.
But as a husband, father and role model Woods will never get anywhere near the world No.1 spot.
And for all the contrition and repentance expressed on Saturday, when he at long last faced a television camera again, his actions off the course have done irreparable damage to his family and how he is seen by the outside world.
No words, no answers to questions that he would not even allow, can change that.
Sure Woods said all the right things and touched the heartstrings.
But the wrongs he committed were so bad, given that he had two young children whom he is supposed to teach how to behave, that with good reason there will still be those who never forgive him.
Or at least not for a long time yet.
Here's hoping, though, that Woods does become a better person - and that the media give him and his nearest and dearest space in the coming months.
Golf is certainly poorer for his absence because his pursuit of Jack Nicklaus's 18 majors is the biggest story going in the sport and the excitement he brings is like no other player.
Yet the 2008 Open and US PGA championships were both thrillers in his absence through injury - Padraig Harrington won them both, of course - and The Masters in April could well be the same if Woods, as appears likely, is not back by then.
It could be especially exciting from a European perspective, with no fewer than seven players from the continent in the current top 11 on the world rankings.
Can Rory McIlroy win his first major at 20? Can Lee Westwood finally land one at 36? Can Harrington make it a Tigerless treble?
All that is irrelevant to Woods. His priorities are elsewhere and so broken is his personal life - all his own fault - that he needs to devote all his energies towards that.
It was easy to feel very sorry for him as he spoke. It was sincere, it was clearly an ordeal for him and it must have been terrible for his mother to listen to.
He could not fall into his wife's arms at the end of it because she was not there and whether they can patch things up remains to be seen.
Many will find it truly amazing that she is even prepared to try given all that has gone on.
A mother's love was clearly still there, however. Woods has let her down terribly, but their embrace reinforced the impression given that he has turned a corner in his life.
Hopefully never to go back.