On Tuesday, with the Players Championship heating up, Tiger Woods grabbed the headlines, announcing he had undergone surgery for a torn achilles that will likely keep him sidelined through much of 2025. The news wasn’t exactly surprising—the injury was the latest in a long line for Woods, who has struggled with lower-leg mobility since his 2021 car accident—but for many wondering about Woods’ long-term prospects as a professional golfer, it felt definitive.

That included all-pro take-haver, Stephen A. Smith, who made a bold (but not altogether untrue) claim about Woods’ game on Wednesday’s edition of ‘First Take.’ Grab a Kleenex and buckle up, folks. This may be hard to hear.

“I mean no disrespect: To me Tiger Woods is a recreational golfer at this point,” Smith said. “Literally, you don’t even think about his swing, y’all. You don’t think about his short game, his mid game, you don’t think about none of that. You don’t think about him driving off the tee. All you think about is he can’t make it through four days walking, before you even think about him swinging. Walking an 18-hole course is not something he can do anymore.”

Not even Chris ‘Mad Dog’ Russo could muster much of an argument. Smith freely admitted he doesn’t pay as much attention to golf as Russo, but anyone who has spent as much time covering sports as he has knows when a legend of the game—any game—has reached their competitive expiration date. Smith believes that date was Tuesday, March 12th, 2025 for Tiger Woods.

Ultimately, Tiger himself will have the final say. He’s earned that right, but for now it looks like we have to come to terms with the fact that Woods’ long-awaited “one more” has already come and gone.