Woods apologizes for tampon prank

LOS ANGELES Tiger Woods has apologised for any o ence he caused after he was seen discreetly handing Justin Thomas a tampon after outdriving his playing partner at the Genesis Invitational.

It occurred as the Americans walked o the ninth tee, with Thomas laughing and then dropping the tampon on the oor.

"It was supposed to be all fun and games and obviously it hasn't turned out that way," said Woods, 47.

"If I o ended anybody in any way, shape or form, I'm sorry," he added.

"It was not intended to be that way. We play pranks on one another all the time and virally I think this did not come across that way, but between us it was, it's di erent."

Woods is playing in his rst competitive PGA Tour event since missing the cut at The Open in July.

The 15-time major champion was in a group with PGA Championship winner Thomas and four-time major winner Rory McIlroy for the rst two rounds.

The incident on day one drew criticism on social media, with many stating it was disrespectful to women.

Woods' apology came after he carded a three-over-par 74 on Friday to leave him one over par after two rounds.

Writing in USA Today, columnist Christine Brennan, said: "Woods' message to Thomas was obvious. It has been the go-to line of silly, often insecure boys for generations: You play like a girl.

"What a bizarre thing for a "girl dad" to do. His daughter Sam, now 15, grew up playing soccer and had just played in a tournament in Florida when she arrived to watch him win the Masters in 2019.

"... He employed basic misogyny to insult his good friend Thomas, a knee-slapper of a dig against female athletes: You hit the ball like a girl!"

Speaking on Sky Sports News, Stirk added: "It was seemingly done in jest. To me it was laddy, blokey behaviour, passing him the tampon e ectively saying: 'I've outdriven you, you're driving the ball like a woman'.

"[That is] e ectively the inference of the incident that happened and that to me says females, women, are inferior to men.

"Women should not be portrayed as being inferior to men in any walk of life and certainly on a sporting landscape."

US lawyer Dr Ann Olivarius tweeted: "See, it's funny because feminine hygiene products are INHERENTLY emasculating, so when a man makes another man touch a tampon, he's saying 'I am a bigger and better man than you, because, GROSS, I made you touch a wrapped Tampax!'."

Golf podcast host Brian Kirschner said: "Truly cannot get over the idea of Tiger Woods preparing for his rst non-major start since 2020 at a tournament he's hosting and being like "oops almost forgot to pack a tampon to hand to JT when I hit it past him".

And Julie DiCaro, a lawyer and author, tweeted: "Ugh. All the guys think this is hilarious, but the joke is denigrating women. So played out and stupid." BBC Sport