Tiger Woods Apologizes For Joke With Justin Thomas, Shoots Three-Over 74 To Make Cut On Number At Riviera

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He knew the question was coming. As soon as the word "joke" came out of a reporter's mouth, Tiger Woods' face turned somber. For as off-the-grid as he comes off, Woods is keenly aware of public discourse, and he knew his prank on his good pal Justin Thomas had gone viral. The vast majority of the social-media reaction seemed to be positive—two friends having a little fun on the golf course, and they never wanted it to become public—but a not-insigificant group of people took offense to one man handing another man a tampon.

"I’m guessing most of the millions of fathers and mothers who support athletic daughters probably have retired juvenile pranks that were intended to demean those girls they love," USA Today's Christine Brennan wrote, ostensibly referencing Tiger's teenage daughter, Sam. "But not our Tiger….Woods’ message to Thomas was obvious. It has been the go-to line of silly, often insecure boys for generations: You play like a girl." 

Woods was not about to double down on Friday or decry internet sensitivities; when you're an athlete of his stature, there's really no benefit in being controversial. An apology would, in theory, assuage the offended. And the non-offended would still find it funny.

That's the cynical, everything-is-calculated view, at least. But Woods looked genuinely contrite as he issued an apology for something he surely never thought would spread as quickly as this did. 

"It was supposed to be all fun and games and obviously it hasn't turned out that way," Woods said after a three-over 74 that saw him make the cut on the number. "If I offended anybody…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."

As for his golf? Woods played essentially the inverse of his round on Thursday, when he finished with three consecutive birdies to turn a meh round into an impressive two-under 69. On Friday, he bogeyed three of his final four holes to drop from contention into sweating-the-cut territory. 

Yes, Friday morning was always going to be the bigger ask; temperatures were in the 40s when Woods, Thomas and Rory McIlroy teed off at 7:24 a.m. local time, and the quick turnaround didn't give Woods much time to treat the inflammation he's now constantly fighting. He looked solid at the start, striping two shots down the tricky par-4 10th to set up a good birdie look…which he blocked. It became a theme all day. A day after gaining nearly two shots on the field putting, he lost nearly two shots, missing a number of putts to the right. 

"I just blocked them, they were just bad putts," he said. "They were not very hard, good reads. I brought Joey in on a couple of them and I just hit bad putts. So I could have easily got off to a very hot start and I did not, and then middle part of the round I could have turned it around a little bit and I did not."

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The optimist would cite Woods' speed as evidence that he's made progress from last year, and that he could well make more progress still. Woods maintained ball speeds in the mid 170s, well above PGA Tour average, and hit a number of hard fades that rolled forever on Riviera's firm fairways. He is, however, limited in his shot options—he did not hit one drive that turned right-to-left over the first two rounds. He's also limited in the way he generates power given the relative weakness of his right leg. 

"Before (the accident) I would use the ground and push off and could be explosive. I don't have that ability anymore, so a lot of it's just purely core strength, but also being very careful because my back is fused. Yes, I can hit the ball hard, but it's just, I've got to be very careful in how I go about that.

"There's things technically that we have found that work, but if I try and step on it and use the ground, it just doesn't happen anymore. But if I step on it and use my core too much, then my back's not very good. I've got to be very careful in how I go about that. But yes, this is what I've been doing at home, this is the speed I've been hitting it. I don't have the high one like some of these guys do, like the two guys in my group, they can hit that ball and send it. I don't have that because of the limitations in my back and my leg."

Woods was even par for his round when he stepped to the par-3 6th tee and hit what he thought was a solid-enough approach. He hit a few excellent ones on his first nine, including a tee shot to 10 inches on the par-3 14th and a majestic long iron after a forced layup on the par-5 17th. 

But his shot into 6 rolled back down a hill leaving a particularly tricky proposition: he could try to putt it through the fringe that guards the bunker in the middle of the green, or he could chip it to the back and accept a likely bogey. He went with the first option and proceeded to putt his ball directly into the bunker. 

A crafty up-and-down from there saw him escape with bogey, and a two-putt par at 7 seemed to right the ship. But Woods pulled his tee shot into a bunker on the left side of 8, forcing a layup, and he wasn't able to get up-and-down from the fairway for par. At the ninth, his last hole of the day, Woods' sky-high approach hit a wall of wind and plopped into a front bunker. A fried egg. He blasted out but couldn't keep the ball on the green, and his par chip caught the high-side lip. 

"Probably should have shot probably five or six better than this easily. 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."