Written by: Tom Sawyer

First, I have to state the obvious: Tiger Woods’ recent physical injuries and property damage had nothing to do with a simple accident.  Also, I would be highly surprised if 1) his driveway isn’t at least two lanes wide 2) he doesn’t have backup sensors and/or a backup camera on his Cadillac Escalade and 3) his driveway isn’t so long that you would never back out of it anyway.  We also have to consider the damage to the car that isn’t consistent with backing into a fire hydrant and hitting a tree.  Yes, I learned that from watching CSI – the original, Miami and sometimes New York.  Many more theories could be applied to this situation, but it is now evident that something isn’t right between Tiger and Elin Woods.

He cheated.  She may have known about it and was cool until it came out in public.  She got so upset that she decided to play a little golf of her own.

Tiger Woods normally keeps his personal business to himself, but news of the superstar golfer, his wife and the legal documents concerning their marriage is slowly but surely coming out.  Like many previously thought, reports are saying that Elin Woods signed a prenup in 2004 which gives her $20 million dollars if the couple divorced after 10 years.  This brings up two points:

1. $20 million dollars isn’t very much money for someone who has a $40 million dollar boat and buys islands.
2. Elin Woods wasn’t too smart to sign this prenup in the first place.  She should have held out for a bigger contract.

I wouldn’t necessarily classify this union as beauty and the beast, but her beauty is only trumped by his money.  When this happens, like it does all too often with the wealthy, I normally blame both parties, but in this case Tiger seemed to have known what he was doing.  By giving her $20 million after 10 years he was basically confirming her place in the marriage: eye candy merely worth a small fraction of his empire.  But his smart thinking in 2004 has turned into a bad business deal in 2009.

Tigers “transgressions” are going to cost him $60 million dollars off the top – still not a great deal of money for someone who is reportedly hovering around the $1 billion mark in career earnings.  $5 million of that $60 million is “a $5 million payment immediately if she agrees to stay.”  So she has allegedly been given $5 million dollars if she agrees to stay for two more years.  Are we talking about two people who are married or Phil Jackson’s contract extension to coach the Lakers?

In addition to the $5 million dollar payment, their prenup is being renegotiated to kick in after 7 years with a price tag of $55 million. 

Since love doesn’t seem to be part of the equation anymore, lets look at this business deal:

Original deal

• $20 million dollars for 10 years – $2 million dollars per year
• Unspecified amount for child support for 2 children – very low estimate of $50,000 per month or $600,000 per year

New deal

• $5 million dollar bonus/sorry gift
• $55 million dollars for 7 years – $7.85 million dollars per year
• After two years the child support option is still a possibility should the player, I mean wife opt out of the marriage.  However, the child support contract would be reduced by 3 years – the contract expires after 7 years instead of 10 – or the low estimate of $1.8 million dollars

Yeah, this contract business can get confusing.

Tiger’s legal team should ask the golfer two questions.  The first question is what would make him more comfortable.  It is probably more of a comfort to have his wife at home even though his “needs” could most certainly be met by a personal assistant, shopper, chef, nanny and other female “companions.”  All of these people will undoubtedly cost him less than the differnce or $5.85 million per year plus the $5 million dollar bonus.  But her contract may not have an early out clause so his savings could be considerably more since he wouldn’t have to make the $20 million dollar payment.

The second question Team Tiger should ask is if he is OK with absorbing the additional cost of the new contract and any tax benefits he could lose.  I would guess it isn’t a financial burden since this is what he is agreeing to.

At least I would advise him to call J-Lo and ask her about adding some wording about sexual frequency into his new deal.  Don’t you think that is the least concession Elin should be willing to make?

Tags: Elin Woods, Prenup, Tiger cheating on wife, Tiger Woods

This entry was posted on Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 8:21 am and is filed under Current Buzz. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.