THE criticism of Tiger Woods and the way he used the word “spaz” after the Masters on Sunday evening continued to grow yesterday.

As it did so, Mark Steinberg, his manager, did his best to explain that Woods had not meant his use of the word to be interpreted the way it has been outside the United States.

After Phil Mickelson had won the tournament, beating Woods, the defending champion, by three strokes, the world No 1 was asked about his performance in the final round. “I putted atrociously today,” Woods said. “On the greens I was a spaz.”

Agnes Fletcher, the assistant director of communications at the Disability Rights Commission, condemned Woods’s use of the word. “Mr Woods will, I am sure, want to make amends by distancing himself from everything that the term ‘spaz’ conveys,” he said. “We shouldn’t limit people’s horizons by continuing to use nasty labels of the past.

“The low expectations that the term ‘spaz’ conveys are something that undermine young disabled people’s hopes from an early age. Tiger Woods is a role model for young people around the world and has smashed through prejudice to achieve on the international stage. He will no doubt regret that his words may compound the prejudice that so many of his disabled fans face.”

Steinberg, speaking from the US, said. “In the US the word ‘spaz’ means klutzy, someone who is physically inept. The way Tiger used it was to describe his putting, which he thought was clumsy. Tiger did not mean this word to be derogatory in any way at all to people who are disabled.”

Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, Britain’s leading Paralympian, joined the debate yesterday, saying: “I think he was a bit stupid saying something off the cuff in that way.”

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Glenn Hoddle was dismissed as England manager after telling The Times some people were disabled for a reason. “The karma is working from another lifetime. What you sow, you have to reap,” he said. And he did.

PATRICK KIDD