Tiger Woods Apologizes for Giving Justin Thomas a Tampon 

Tiger Woods Apologizes for Giving Justin Thomas a Tampon 

Tiger Woods has expressed regret for an online prank he played on golfer Justin Thomas.

Undercover cameras caught the 47-year-old player sneaking a tampon to the 29-year-old Thomas on the ninth hole of the Genesis Invitational on February 16. The tournament took place in Pacific Palisades, California. Video of Thomas throwing the tampon on the ground and then laughing it off with his rival has gone viral. As they continued towards the fairway, they hugged on the side.

Several internet commenters accused Woods of being sexist for giving Thomas, who was being outdriven by 20 yards at the moment, a menstruation product. Woods later offered an apology for the incident.

He reportedly told reporters on February 17 that “It was supposed to be all fun and games and obviously it hasn’t turned out that way,”  To everyone I may have offended: “If I offended anybody, it was not the case, it was just friends having fun.”

He explained, “If I offended anybody in any way, shape or form, I’m sorry. It was not intended to be that way.”

Woods didn’t go into detail about the tampon’s role in the exchange, but he did say it was between friends. In his own words, “We play pranks on one another all the time and virally I think this did not come across that way,” Woods added. “But between us, it’s different.”

Since Woods did not go past the second round of the Open Championship in July, he has not competed in a competitive competition until this week’s Genesis Invitational. Woods shot a two-under par 69 and finished the first round in 27th place after his viral prank.

Woods claimed, “Probably should have shot probably five or six better than this easily,” about his performance. “Just didn’t make the putts early and the middle part of the round when I had those opportunities. And they weren’t very hard putts, I just hit bad putts and obviously had a very bad finish, too.”