Tiger Woods is sorry after a stunt he pulled on fellow golfer Justin Thomas went viral.
On Feb. 16, cameras captured the 47-year-old covertly passing a tampon to Thomas, 29, at the ninth hole of the Genesis Invitational in Pacific Palisades, Calif. As seen in footage circulating on social media, Thomas quickly dropped the tampon to the ground before breaking out into laughter with his competitor. The two then shared a side hug as they walked to the fairway.
After the exchange drew backlash online, with some accusing Woods of exhibiting misogynistic behavior by handing Thomas—who had been outdriven by 20 yards at the time—a menstrual product, the athlete issued an apology.
"It was supposed to be all fun and games and obviously it hasn't turned out that way," he told reporters during a Feb. 17 press conference, according to ESPN. "If I offended anybody, it was not the case, it was just friends having fun."
He continued, "If I offended anybody in any way, shape or form, I'm sorry. It was not intended to be that way."
While Woods did not explicitly explain why he used a tampon as a prop, he noted that it was simply an exchange between friends. "We play pranks on one another all the time and virally I think this did not come across that way," Woods added. "But between us, it's different."
The Genesis Invitational is Woods' first official tournament since the Open Championship in July, during which he missed the cut in the second round. Following his viral stunt, Woods ended the first round in 27th place with two-under par 69.
"Probably should have shot probably five or six better than this easily," Woods said of his game, per CNN. "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."