Top Golfer, Justin Thomas, Uses 'Inexcusable' Homophobic Slur

On Saturday, top golfer Justin Thomas was caught on a mic using an anti-gay slur. Thomas, as CNN notes, is the world's number 3 golfer and was playing at a PGA Tour tournament in Hawaii at the time. He missed a par putt and used the term as a reaction. He then released an apology.

"There's no excuse," he said on-air after the round. "I'm an adult. I'm a grown man. There's absolutely no reason for me to say anything like that.

"It's terrible. I'm extremely embarrassed," he continued. "It's not who I am, it's not the kind of person I am but unfortunately I did it and I have to own up to it and I'm very apologetic.

"It's inexcusable," he said. "I'm speechless. It's bad. There's no other way to put it. I need to be better ... I deeply apologize to everybody and anybody who I offended and I'll be better because of it."

The PGA Tour said that the athlete would likely be fined, as a result, for conduct that is "unbecoming of a professional."

"This type of discriminatory language causes real harm, and there is no place for it in sports," Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign tweeted of the slur. "We must continue to work for greater inclusion and acceptance. That's how we all ultimately will win."

On Sunday, Thomas was still thinking about what he said, telling Golf Channel that heading into the final, golf wasn't the first thing on his mind.

"I wish that I could learn to grow a different way than the way that I chose to do it, but unfortunately it's in the past and there's nothing I can do about it now," he said. "It definitely was a distraction out there today. But now I just get to take time going forward and try to become better because of it."

Thomas came in third place. Harris English won first while Joaquin Niemann came in second.

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