The 15-time major champion was seen handing fellow golfer Thomas the sanitary product after he outdrove his playing partner on the ninth tee.
The two were seen laughing as they walked away with Thomas later dropping the tampon on the grass.
Woods is playing in his first competitive PGA Tour event since missing the cut at The Open last July and was slammed for his ‘crass’ behaviour.
The 47-year-old has now apologised, insisting the incident was just ‘two friends having fun’.
‘It was supposed to be all fun and games, and obviously it hasn’t turned out that way,’ Woods said on Friday. ‘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.’
Speaking about the incident, Sky Sports Golf presenter Sarah Stirk slammed Woods’ behaviour and described the joke with Thomas as ‘disappointing and surprising.’
‘My overriding feelings, completely surprised and, if I’m being honest, really disappointed,’ Stirk told Sky Sports News.
‘I’m a female working in sport, I’m passionate and love the game of golf, I think we’re all striving for equality, we’ve all seen massive inroads that everybody’s doing when it comes to promoting women’s sport, more media exposure, increase in participation level, we want women’s sport to be on a level playing field with men.
‘I think this incident last night was extremely disappointing, I think it was crass, to be honest.
‘They’re two good friends, JT and Tiger Woods, good buddies, play a lot together, Tiger Woods outdrove Justin Thomas, it was seemingly done in jest, to me it was ‘laddy’, blokey behaviour.
‘He passed him the tampon effectively saying, ‘I’ve outdriven you, you’re driving the ball like a woman’, this is the inference of the incident that happened.
‘That to me says females, women, are inferior to men, ‘I’ve outdriven you, you’ve driven the ball a shorter distance than I have, therefore women are inferior to men’. I just think that’s not what we want to be showcasing in the world of sport right now.’
MORE : Tiger Woods labelled ‘crass’ over his tampon joke with Justin Thomas
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