Tiger Woods apologized after handing a tampon to his golf buddy Justin Thomas

Tiger Woods is back on the golf course after dealing with horrific injuries for several years. He’s apparently hit some kind of form at the Genesis Open in Pacific Palisades. On Thursday, Tiger hit a “blistered a 323-yard drive” past his good friend and fellow pro golfer Justin Thomas. After the drive, Tiger walked towards Thomas and slid something in his hand. Thomas dropped the object quickly when he saw what it was, and Tiger put his arm around Thomas as the two men presumably laughed and teased each other. What was the object? A tampon. Get it? Because Tiger Woods is more manly than Justin Thomas. Because menstruation is a “joke.” Because women are a joke, and there’s nothing worse than being a woman who menstruates.

Tiger Woods had a gift for Justin Thomas after driving it past him on number nine.

(via @GettyImages) pic.twitter.com/HXZEQSAhEU

— Rick Gehman (@RickRunGood) February 17, 2023

@NoLayingUp @TronCarterNLU @ngschuNLU @DJPie @SportsSturm Tiger out drives Rory and JT. Am I crazy for thinking this is Tiger handing JT a tampon right after? pic.twitter.com/eevKsvDgXf

— conrad steele (@cnrdstl) February 16, 2023

Condemnation for Tiger came swiftly – more swiftly than I would have predicted. The photos and the video clip went viral immediately, so much so that when Tiger sat down to do media on Friday, he gave a half-assed apology then and there:

Following Friday’s second round at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California, Woods said he didn’t mean to offend anyone.

“It was supposed to be all fun and games and obviously it hasn’t turned out that way,” Woods told reporters. “If I offended anybody, it was not the case, it was just friends having fun. As I said, if I offended anybody in any way, shape or form, I’m sorry. It was not intended to be that way. It was just 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 different.”

Woods handed Thomas a tampon after outdriving his playing partner on the ninth hole. Thomas immediately discarded the tampon before the two men laughed and hugged as they walked off the tee. Some on social media said the incident had sexist overtones, while England women’s soccer manager Sarina Wiegman told reporters Saturday: “It is very inappropriate, and I think he has realized that.”

“If tiger spent three months a year bleeding and coping with period pain, they’d make a whole-ass documentary about how champions overcome insurmountable obstacles,” Alex McDaniel, managing editor of USA Today’s For The Win, tweeted on Friday.

[From CNN]

What I keep thinking about is… Tiger has a teenage daughter, Sam. Sam is 15 years old. Does her dad think it’s a hilarious burn to hand her a tampon too? I get that men – bros – have a different kind of humor with one another, but jeez, this was terrible. Tiger did it in public, this wasn’t some kind of private situation. Tiger had dozens (if not hundreds) of cameras on him at that moment and he decided to do it anyway.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

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