HEALTH
Tiger Woods says a Shark Tank CBD gummy ‘erased 20 years of pain.’ Then the site crashed.
The 15-time major champion, whose career has been repeatedly interrupted by spinal injuries, told CNN he tracked down the chemist behind a rare five-shark deal after a single dose.
WatchWoods on the gummies · 3:42
Tiger Woods during a practice round this season. He says chronic back pain had made a full 18 holes with his son nearly impossible — until a bottle from a Shark Tank chemist showed up. David Cannon/Getty Images
It was already one of the most-watched episodes of Shark Tank in years. Then Tiger Woods got involved.
Weeks after an MIT-trained chemist named Sam Malone walked off the set with a $2.5 million deal from all five sharks — a rarity even on a show built for spectacle — Woods credited a bottle of Triple Green Farms CBD Gummies for a comeback he told CNN he did not think was still in him.
“I’ve tried everything they put in front of me for 20 years,” Woods said in a video obtained by CNN. “When the Shark Tank team sent these, I was skeptical. One gummy and my back felt like I was 25 again. I played 18 with Charlie and I didn’t wince. That hasn’t happened in a long time. I’m sleeping through the night.”
Woods with his son Charlie. In the video, he said walking a full round together without pain was the moment he took the gummies seriously. Sam Greenwood/Getty Images
A career measured in surgeries
Woods’ medical file is not a secret. Fusion surgery. Microdiscectomies. The 2021 car crash. The long, public attempts to rebuild a swing that once made the rest of the field look slow. Trainers, anti-inflammatories, cortisone, ice baths, and what he has described, more than once, as “whatever they handed me.”
What is new is the product he is willing to put his name on. Woods is not a pitchman in the traditional sense — he does not do infomercials — which is why the clip moved as fast as it did. CNN could not independently verify every medical claim in the video. What we could verify: the warehouse behind the gummies could not keep the site online.
The Shark Tank set. Malone’s pitch is the first in the show’s history, producers said, to draw offers from every shark at the table in a single round. ABC/Christopher Willard
The chemist, the sharks, and his mother
Malone, who holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry, told the sharks he built the formula after his mother developed crippling arthritis and the options in front of her were, in his words, “opioids or giving up.” He was not interested in masking pain after the damage was done.
“Most pain products are reactive. They try to block the signal. Ours is proactive. It supports the endocannabinoid system — the master regulator for pain perception, inflammation, and sleep. We’re not hiding the problem. We’re helping the body address the root.”
— Sam Malone, founder, Triple Green Farms
That framing is what sold the sharks, according to people in the room. It is also what Woods said he responded to. “Tiger’s endorsement isn’t a booking,” Malone told CNN. “He found us after he tried them. His emails look like the ones we get from construction workers and grandparents. Relief in as little as 30 minutes, they say. I don’t write the subject lines.”
Malone’s Massachusetts lab. He says the gummies use a full-spectrum hemp extract designed to work with the body’s own endocannabinoid system rather than simply dulling pain signals. Triple Green Farms
A nationwide shortage, in real time
After Woods’ video circulated, Triple Green Farms’ site went down for three hours. The first production run sold out in under five minutes, a company spokesperson said. A second, larger batch was gone in 12.
“The warehouse is on 24/7 and we still cannot keep up,” the spokesperson told CNN. “With the international expansion, we expect current U.S. stock to be gone in days. We’re telling people not to wait, which I know sounds like a line. It isn’t.”
To mark the U.S. relaunch of Triple Green Farms CBD Gummies, first-time orders are 50% off while that inventory lasts. CNN readers using the official link are in that window until tonight.
CNN sat with a volunteer for 14 days
The show’s producers, looking to pressure-test Malone’s pitch off-camera, pulled a volunteer from the production crew. Kathy Rhodes, 54, a mother of three, had been dealing with chronic pain for 11 years. It took two weeks just to get a bottle — the product was sold out in the places they checked.
Kathy Rhodes during the 14-day log. She had lived with chronic pain for more than a decade.
DAY 1
“I took two gummies and honestly forgot about them. An hour later I was in a mall I usually cut short because my back starts screaming. I was fine. Not high. Not foggy. Just… fine. It felt like I didn’t have the pain for a minute, which is a weird sentence to write. I got curious.”
DAY 5
“I was getting out of bed without the snooze-button negotiation. Energy was flatter — not the spikes and crashes. And I slept through the night, which I have not done in years. I told my sister I thought it was in my head. She told me to shut up and keep taking them.”
DAY 14
“The skepticism is gone. The chronic pain is gone. The headaches too. I did not think a gummy was going to be the thing. I’m grateful Malone put the research in a form I would actually take.”
Try What Kathy Took — 50% Off →
Will it work for you?
Malone’s pitch on the tank was simple: one formula, several kinds of grind-you-down pain. Woods, for his part, said he threw out a cabinet of prescription bottles after the first week. A third-party lab hired by the company reported that 93% of users in a four-week observational panel described noticeable relief inside 30 minutes, and that inflammatory nerve markers dropped 62% over three weeks. CNN did not run that study and is not endorsing its methods. The company paid for it.
What we can say, from the emails and the comment thread under this story, is that the people who sound the most like themselves are not promising miracles. They’re talking about sleep. Getting out of a truck. Walking a mall. Playing nine extra holes.
The gummies themselves. Users in CNN’s comment thread described the taste as “weak green apple” and “fine, not candy.” Triple Green Farms
What readers are reporting
“Prescription painkillers for a bad knee for a decade. After a week I stopped reaching for the bottle. I’m not saying I’m 25. I’m saying I finished a shift and drove home without thinking about it.”
“Arthritis in the hands. I had quit knitting. I’m back on the sweaters for the grandkids. I told the Tuesday group before I told my doctor, which is probably not the order you’re supposed to do it.”
“Pain was a 10 or 12 on a bad day. I’m at a 1 most mornings now. I had been on narcotics long enough to scare myself. This is the first time in 15 years I feel like I can move on purpose.”
“Joint pain started fading the first day, which I did not believe. I’m sleeping. I’m not dragging at 3 p.m. That’s the whole review.”
Malone’s team says the current 50% off plus free shipping — including the buy-three-get-two bundle — ends tonight. After that, they go back to the regular price, if there is product left to sell.
Join the conversation