Tiger Woods apologizes for 'prank' during Genesis Invitational

PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. -- Fifteen-time Major champion Tiger Woods apologized after handing fellow golfer Justin Thomas a tampon during the first round of the Genesis Invitational on Thursday.

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." Tiger 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."

"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 morning.

Woods is in danger of missing the cut at the tournament, after finishing his second round at one-over-par. The projected cut line is currently even-par, according to pgatour.com, but ESPN's broadcast said the cut line is expected to move to one-over as the afternoon progresses.

Woods criticized his play on Friday, saying "this was the highest score I could have shot today."

After suffering serious leg injuries in a car accident two years ago, Woods has made sporadic competitive appearances as he battles with a grueling recovery process.

Playing at the Genesis Invitational this week marks his first official tournament start since The Open Championship in July and his first non-major PGA Tour event since the ZOZO Championship in October 2020.

He finished his first round with a two-under par 69, with birdies on his final three holes, to end the day five shots behind tournament leaders Max Homa and Keith Mitchell.

"Probably should have shot probably five or six better than this easily," Woods said. "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."

The Genesis Invitational runs through Sunday.

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