Tiger Woods Hands Justin Thomas Tampon After Outdriving Him On Hole

Further proof Tiger Woods is rounding back into form ... the notorious trash-talker outdrove Justin Thomas on a hole Thursday, then pulled a prank that's only gonna start the "cancel him" chants.

The moment went down on the ninth hole of the guys' opening round at the Genesis Invitational in Los Angeles ... when Tiger brought out his driver, and nuked a ball 323 yards down the fairway.

Thomas' ensuing drive didn't even come close to the legend's ... falling some 20 yards short of it -- and as the two were walking to their balls, Tiger slyly passed off a Tampax to his good buddy.

It took a quick second for Thomas to realize what it was -- and then he immediately dropped it. The guys then shared a huge laugh and a side hug with each other.

That's likely to be the last time they find the wildly offensive stunt funny, because the online backlash has already begun. Considering Tiger's already bounced back from scandal after scandal, you'd think he'd have better PR sense than to pull something like this.

Of course, Tiger and J.T. are very good friends and have both become known for talking smack on the course. In fact, at The Match back in December, the two threw jabs at each other for hours throughout the evening.

Thomas ended up with the last laugh on Tiger, though -- at least, when it came to Thursday's scores -- he shot a 3-under 68, while Woods carded a 2-under 69.