Tiger Woods landed in hot water following a completely sexist prank he pulled on the golf course this week.
During the opening round at the Genesis Invitational at the Riviera Country Club in California on Thursday, the 47-year-old golfer outdrove his friend and competitor Justin Thomas at the start of the ninth hole – hitting 323 yards compared to the 29-year-old’s 313 yards. While the two were walking up the fairway, Tiger decided to prank Justin and slide a tampon into his hand. Really, Tiger?! Mind you, he is a father of a 15-year-old daughter and just pulled a sexist gesture that basically suggested his competitor played like a girl. WTF. The PGA Tour star quickly tossed the product to the ground, and Tiger put his around Justin before they started laughing. You can ch-ch-check out the moment (below):
Yes, Tiger Woods 100% handed Justin Thomas a tampon after he outdrove him. pic.twitter.com/VJbfldyXhw
— Busted Coverage (@bustedcoverage) February 17, 2023
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When photos of the interaction went viral on Friday, many people weren’t laughing along with Tiger and Justin. In fact, they called out the athlete for the inherently misogynistic gag on Twitter, writing:
“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”
“Misogyny and sexism is ever present in sports. Tiger Woods using a menstruation product, which many people cannot afford with the lack of access significantly impacts their lives, to show Justin Thomas that he’s ‘the man’ is not funny. It shows what he thinks of women.”
“Positioning menstruation as weakness is the patriarchy and this is a puerile, stale joke. Let’s put the menstrual cramp machine on Tiger Woods so he can have some more data about menstruation.”
“Call me woke. Call me a snowflake. Call me ‘offended’. Whatever. But handing another male golfer a tampon is objectively not funny. It shows the sophistication of a 14 year old schoolboy.”
Following the backlash, Tiger apologized for the incident and insisted he did not mean to offend anybody. He said during a press conference on Friday:
“Yeah, it was supposed to be all fun and games, and obviously it hasn’t turned out that way. 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.”
Tiger Woods apologized for his joke with Justin Thomas at Riviera pic.twitter.com/hqvMT1X5dO
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) February 17, 2023
Seriously? It definitely sounds like he either doesn’t understand the error of his ways or doesn’t see anything wrong with basically implying that people who menstruate are “weaker.” Ugh. What are your thoughts on the matter, Perezcious readers? Sound OFF in the comments below!
[Image via MEGA/WENN]
