LOS ANGELES — Tiger Woods had some explaining to do Friday, about a putter so cold it left him on the verge of missing the cut, and about a chauvinist prank he played on Justin Thomas in the Genesis Invitational.
In his return to elite competition for the first time in seven months, Woods caused quite a buzz in the opening round for all the wrong reasons.
It started when he ripped a 323-yard drive, some 10 yards longer than the 29-year-old Thomas. Walking off the tee, Woods discreetly put something in Thomas’ hand, which Thomas tossed to the ground when he realized what it was — a tampon, to remind Thomas that Woods hit it farther. Woods laughed and put his arm around Thomas.
Social media came to life when the moment was posted. On Friday, one fan shouted, “Tampon!” at Woods after he made a rare putt.
Woods apologized after his bogey-bogey finish for a 74 in the second round, which left him over the projected cut line.
“It was supposed to be all fun and games and obviously it hasn’t turned out that way,” Woods 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.”
Outside of swearing following bad shots, Woods rarely brings this kind of attention to himself inside the ropes.
The golf wasn’t much better, either.
He missed birdie chances early and par chances late, and the finish was a polar opposite from his opening round when he closed with three straight birdies for a 69.
Woods came within inches of an ace on the par-3 14th, his fifth hole of the round, but he missed a 5-foot birdie chance two holes later.
“I did not putt well today,” Woods said. “I blocked a lot of putts early, and this is probably the highest score I could have shot today. 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…
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