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Is Tiger Woods Going to Lose It All?

Wed., Dec. 2, 2009 8:30 PM PST by Leslie Gornstein

Chris Weeks/Getty Images

Now that Tiger Woods has confessed to "transgressions" against his wife, will he still have to pay any kind of price?
—Jayson, Montreal, via the Answer B!tch inbox

Oh, the pain for Tiger Woods has only begun, I'm afraid.

For one, I fear we're going to be seeing many more photos of Tiger, including the unfortunate and inevitable shots of Woods without his hat on. He looks funny without his hat on. I don't know why, but sometimes the truth is a mysterious thing.

Of course it doesn't end there. There are already reports surfacing of a revamped prenup, plus a flat-out seven-figure payday for wronged wife Elin Nordegren Woods. That's right—seven figures, right into a private account.

And while sponsors have publicly come out saying they will not abandon Woods, that doesn't mean they're necessarily being so merciful behind the scenes...

Family law attorney Steve Mindel, managing partner at Feinberg, Mindel, Brandt & Klein LLP, tells me that he's seen a lot of high-profile spats and divorces, as well as the consequences those events have on a star's wallet. And, he says, while Nike, Gatorade, Gillette and Electronic Arts have all said they stand by Woods, in private, that's not so likely.

"Those companies hate every dollar they have to pay to those celebrities," Mindel tells me.

If some of Woods' longtime partners have long-standing sweetheart deals with him, where they no longer pay him as much as they used to, they may not have enough leverage to tell the golf star they want to renegotiate his contract and cut his paycheck. But if it's a relatively new, high-dollar deal, Mindel tells me, the company could "come back and say, 'What are you going to give us for waiving your morals clause?' "

Ouch.

Of course there may be other behind-the-scenes penalties.

Kobe Bryant famously bought wife Vanessa a $4 million, galaxy-class diamond ring shortly after word got out about another woman. (The ring was commissioned two weeks before the scandal broke, or so the reports go, but Kobe may have seen the disaster coming.)

And of course, there's the possibility of losing still more cash by bowing out of future appearances.

Tiger has already pulled out of the Chevron World Challenge, which offers a purse of more than $5.7 million, including a winning share of $1.35 million. That may not sound like much for a mega-golfer-hero like Woods, but even baseball hats do cost money.