Tiger Woods is apologizing to anyone who was offended by the “prank” he played on fellow golfer Justin Thomas when he handed him a tampon during the first round of the Genesis Invitational on Thursday.
Woods issued the apology after the second round at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California, on Friday, CNN
reports.“It was supposed to be all fun and games and obviously it hasn’t turned out that way.” Tiger said. “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,” he continued. “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.”
Thomas laughed after Woods handed him the tampon before dropping the sanitary product on the ground, as noted by Huff Post. The golf champion received mixed responses from fans who were either amused or completely turned off by Woods’ actions.
“That’s a spavined apology. (Yes Tiger, you offended people; no “if” about it.) I love watching the guy play but he can be startlingly offensive at times,” one critic wrote.
“It was juvenile locker room humor, but it certainly wasn’t intended to be demeaning or hurtful. Let’s move on and pray that Tiger makes the cut,” added someone else.
Others defended Woods and expressed their approval of seeing the pro sports legend having a little fun on the course.
“Stop apologizing @TigerWoods you didn’t do anything wrong,” one fan said.
“I laughed. No one was harmed,” another user quipped.
“Nobody has to think it’s funny,” one onlooker explained. “That’s up to them, but people need to stop getting upset about something that doesn’t affect them personally.”