The 47-year-old has faced backlash for the stunt, which unfolded at the Genesis Invitational tournament in California.

Woods made his highly anticipated return to the PGA Tour competition on Thursday, February 16, where he went up against Justin Thomas.

After outdriving his playing partner on the ninth hole, Woods appeared to play a little prank on Thomas.

While walking on the course together, the golfing legend placed something into the hand of the 29-year-old, who swiftly threw it to the ground.

The pair were then seen laughing about whatever it was Woods had gifted him. Check it out:

And what with the internet being the internet, it didn’t take long for people to identify the item to be a tampon.

Over on Twitter, Busted News wrote: “Yes, Tiger Woods 100% handed Justin Thomas a tampon after he outdrove him.”

It’s safe to say some didn’t take too kindly to the prank, with a number of people accusing it of being disrespectful to women.

One person commented: “Sports commentators laughing, and the fact that Tiger Woods had the tampon in his pocket, ready for the right moment to disrespect women, again.

“Yeah, I guess Tiger might want to get a refresher on all that therapy he had after his first wife discovered what his other hobby was.”

Another said: “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.”

“It’s just a boomer joke and says a lot about Tiger,” added a third. “I bet his daughter loves being the butt of his jokes for the way she was born. What a guy.”

Fellow athlete Anna Caplice, a rugby union player, also chimed in on the conversation, stating: “If the world generally respected women I would be able to see the funny side of this. But it doesn’t. So I don’t.”

But others jumped to the defence of the 15-time major champion, including this person who said: “A joke between two mates isn’t always about disrespecting women.”

“I love this, good fun among friends,” commented another.

Former pro golfer Paige Spiranac added: “I need a LIV vs PGA tour Ryder cup type event just so Tiger can give Phil a tampon after out driving him.

“If anyone tries to cancel Tiger over this we riot. It’s funny.”

Even Tampax got in on the action, tweeting: “Wow, we never knew 1 tampon could win Tiger Woods the PIP bonus, we’re gonna need 20% @tigerwoods.”

Despite the support, Woods has since apologized to those who were upset by the situation.

Speaking to talkSPORT, he said: “Yeah it was supposed to be fun and games but obviously it hasn’t turned out that way.

“If I offended anybody it was not the case, it was just friends having fun and, 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 different.”

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Source: USA Today