Tiger Woods is taking a lot of heat for his tampon prank during a PGA Tour event this past weekend. Kara Sugar, CEO of the Women’s Global Empowerment Fund, told TMZ that Woods’ prank was misogynistic, tone-deaf and disrespectful to women and girls all over the world. She was wondering if Woods was implying that “periods are embarrassing or shameful or a sign of weakness?”
During the Genesis Invitational in Los Angeles on Friday, Woods was playing with Justin Thomas, and when Woods hit the ball fourth than Thomas, he handed a Tampax to his friend and opponent. The Women’s Global Empowerment Fund says what Woods did was sad because he’s a grown man that has a daughter. Following the incident, the 47-year-old golf legend issued an apology.
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“Yeah, it was supposed to be all fun and games and obviously it hasn’t turned out that way,” Woods said, per ESPN. “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.”
The Women’s Global Empowerment fun was not the only one to go after Woods. Olympic gold medalist Michael Johnson went to Twitter and said: “Apology starting with ‘If I offended anyone’ is no apology. But this is Tiger. Never been a leader and he’s Teflon. Still heralded after all the mistakes so he’s learned nothing. Media focus always on miraculous recovery. Never why the need for recovery.”
People on social media had mixed reactions to the incident. One person wrote: “To be honest I can’t even believe this is news. Professional athletes have private lives and this includes being good friends with JT. I’m sure they banter and talk trash to each other joking all the time like we all do with friends. The fact this is a news story is asinine.”
“The oldest joke is golf is referring to your playing partners as female if you out drive them or if they leave a putt short,” another person tweeted. “Tiger apologizing wasn’t required for golf fans, it’s only people who aren’t relevant anymore or woke feminist activists who choose to get upset by this.”
