Tiger Woods has made headlines for all the wrong reasons in his recent return to competitive golf.
The golf legend was widely criticized for a bizarre, sexist stunt in which he was seen handing a tampon to opponent and longtime friend Justin Thomas as an apparent joke after outdriving Thomas on the ninth hole at the Genesis Invitational.
The sophomoric gag turned heads among fans and journalists, including scathing takedowns from Jemele Hill and ESPN's Sarah Spain.
Joining them was Golf Channel analyst Cara Banks, who didn't pull any punches in criticizing the 47-year-old Woods for his "demeaning stunt."
"I was offended, to be totally honest with you," Banks told co-host Brandel Chamblee during the network's coverage of the second round of the tournament. "As a woman I was totally shocked to see that the GOAT of our game -- at least the active GOAT -- is walking around carrying an intimate feminine hygiene product that we use to stop ourselves bleeding. I mean, I have no idea where this sort of premeditated act came from, let alone where he got the tampon from."
For Woods, the Genesis marks his first PGA action of the year, after an injury-marred 2022 season. It is also something of a symbolic venue for his return, given he was seriously injured in a harrowing rollover car crash during the 2021 installment of the event.
But instead of a feel-good story, Woods has embroiled himself in controversy for no good reason.
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After his round, the 15-time major winner apologized.
"If I offended anybody in any way, shape or form, I'm sorry," Woods said. "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."
But Banks described the episode as "disappointing."
"It's a shame that his return to PGA Tour competition is now being surrounded by this narrative -- a move that so easily could have been avoided. Yeah, he is the biggest star in our game, with millions, billions of people watching, cameras everywhere. Pulling off a stunt that, yeah, I get it, it was supposed to be a joke, but it was a joke that went wrong.
"It was dumb. It's questionable that he would do it on this stage, at his tournament that he hosts, that benefits his foundation, which is part of what makes him so great. ... He's Tiger Woods. We all love to love Tiger Woods. We don't love to see a man who leads our sport doing something like this, when we're all striving for equality in this sport."
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