Tiger Woods announces divorce
A year ago the suggestion of the story would have brought nothing more than a scornful look from the man who controlled his life as tightly as he could a round of golf.
Now with his personal life in the rough and his playing career in a deep bunker Tiger Woods faced the next tumultuous chapter in a story that would have once been dismissed as one below malicious gossip.
However, nine months after his private life went out of control, along with his car, outside his luxury Florida home, Tiger Woods and his wife, Elin Nordegren, have announced their divorce. Following his car crash, which was the denouement to a furious row between the couple that has even been produced as a video game, it was the life of the golfer that assumed car-crash proportions.
The 34-year-old found himself having to confess to a string of affairs, after several women stepped or were pushed into the media spotlight, which wrecked his carefully cultivated image as a wholesome role model with it attendant corporate sponsorship revenue that ran into millions of dollars a year.
Now the 14-times major champion is left counting the cost not only of those backers who have decamped in the face of lurid headlines but also the divorce settlement. The couple will share in the parenting of their two children - a daughter Sam, three and son Charlie, 19 months – but it is the financial arrangements that put it all into perspective.
Lawyers for the couple - who married in October 2004 - stated that their divorce became final when a judgment was entered in Bay County Circuit Court, near the Florida state capital of Tallahassee, which described the marriage as “irretrievably broken”.
When news first broke that Woods had crashed his Cadillac SUV into a fire hydrant, while driving away from his then home near Orlando in the early hours of November 27th last year, there were initial stories that one of the world’s great sportsmen might have been seriously injured. That proved erroneous but soon gave way to a truth that surprised some who thought they knew the man.
Woods, in keeping with a man who had done his best to control all aspects of his public-facing life, tried to throw a veil of secrecy over the incident but that was torn to shreds when at least dozen women came forward claiming to be current or former lovers. In the grand tradition of such matters they were from varied backgrounds that included a couple of p**n actresses, a New York nightclub hostess, two waitresses and a lingerie model.
One of them, Rachel Uchitel, may have learned a few negotiating tricks from her former amour and has received a $10million payment, in a deal brokered by the Los Angeles lawyer Gloria Allred, apparently in return for her silence.
However, if Woods thought that he could buy his way out of trouble he was badly mistaken and he is now counting the cost.
After the lawyers concluded business Woods and Nordegren issued this joint statement which said: “We are sad that our marriage is over and we wish each other the very best for the future. While we are no longer married, we are the parents of two wonderful children and their happiness has been, and will always be, of paramount importance to both of us.
“Once we came to the decision that our marriage was at an end, the primary focus of our amicable discussions has been to ensure their future well-being. The weeks and months ahead will not be easy for them as we adjust to a new family situation, which is why our privacy must be a principal concern.”
Like many celebrity divorces the details are locked up tighter than Fort Knox but the guesses start at $100 million (about £64.45 million) and then go north to perhaps $500 million.
It is one of the most expensive divorce settlements in history but then it would need to be given the size of the legal teams involved. According to a statement on Woods’ website the couple were able to call upon the services of an all-star cast. Nordegren was represented by McGuireWoods attorneys Richard Cullen and Dennis I Belcher in Richmond, Scott S Cairns in Jacksonville and Walter H White, Jr, and Josefin Lonnborg in London, assisted by Rebecca Palmer of Lowndes, Drosdick, Doster, Kantor & Reed, P A Thomas J Sasser of the West Palm Beach, Florida firm of Sasser, Cestero and Sasser PA, and Peter T Mott of the Southport, Connecticut firm of Brody Wilkinson, PC, represented Woods.
Given that these learned counsels probably charge like a wounded rhino Woods could probably do with winning some tournaments soon.
Not that a return to the form that made him almost unassailable as the world’s No.1 golfer – a position he seems destined to lose in the coming weeks – is looking likely in the near future.
Having taken five months out of the sport, Woods has yet to win a tournament this year and missed out on automatic qualification for the US Ryder Cup team for the tournament at Celtic Manor in October.
Now he has wait to find out if US captain Corey Pavin offers Woods one of his wildcard selections. For a man used to controlling his life as tightly as he could once control a round of golf it is simply another scorn to be heaped upon all the others.
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