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Video: Nordegren gets big payout in Woods divorce

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   >> let's begin this half hour with tiger woods and elin nordegren , the couple officially divorced on monday, nine months after the golfer's infamous car crash that exposed a series of affairs. nbc's peter alexander now joins us with the latest on this story. peter, good morning.

   >> reporter: ann , good morning to you. i think it's safe to say this was a shock to nobody. pet tiger woods and his ex-wife in a court hearing that lasted no longer than ten minutes. reportedly not saying a word to each other. theirs seemed like a fairy tale marriage pupg waited on countless 18 greens. tiger and elin's romance was officially extinguished in a florida courthouse with elin reportedly accompanied by a handful of lawyers, one of them her identical twin sister, the former couple released a joint statement saying we are sad that our marriage is over and we wish each other the very best for the future. in these newly filed divorce documents the marriage between tiger , whose legal name is eldrick woods , and elin, is described as irretrievably broken. the judge restored elin's maiden name , elin nordegren , and they agreed to share parenting of their two children, 3-year-old sam and 18-month-old charlie with both mom and dad also completing parenting classes. tiger spoke about his children last month.

   >> i have two beautiful kids and i try to be the best dad i can possibly be, and that's the most important thing of all.

   >> reporter: the terms of the divorce may never be known but some reports estimate elin's jaw dropping payout could be anywhere from $100 million to $500 million.

   >> it's a win-win for both of them. he gets what he wants, satisfactory custody arrangement with the children and most importantly confidentiality agreement . she became a wealthy wm.

   >> reporter: it's been nearly nine months since the golf icon's once carefully crafted image was shattered by that mysterious car crash outside his mansion. a flood of tabloid headlines and awkward admissions of numerous extramarital affairs .

   >> i am deeply sorry for my irresponsible and selfish behavior i engaged in.

   >> reporter: while tiger has returned to golf, elin, a former model from sweden , has been spotted throughout the orlando area running errands, dining out, and taking her children to preschool as well as reportedly enrolling in psychology classes at nearby rollins college .

   >> elin was the quiet wife, always on the sidelines. but in this divorce she was actually able to take the kids to sweden when she wants which tiger did not want.

   >> reporter: elin recently bought a sprawling estate near sto stockholm. they reached an agreement during the fourth of july weekend.

   >> misses the par putt there.

   >> reporter: the same time that a rattled tiger posted one of his worst finishies winding up tied for 46th place.

   >> tiger is not making a thing.

   >> tiger would be this impenetrable golfer, now there are cracks in the armor. he's not the same guy. i don't think he can put that back out there.

   >> reporter: these days tiger 's golf game is stranded in the rough. and you wouldn't know it by watching him lately but tiger is still ranked the number one golfer. he'll be back in new jersey. his first competing as a single man in six years. ann ?

   >> peter alexander , thanks. wendy murphy is an attorney specializes in women's rights and mike lineup upica is a sportswriter and author of the book "hero." just how badly is tiger woods playing?

   >> oh, compared to the way he finished last year, he didn't even win a major last year. he was still playing at an extreme ly high level . now he's playing like a skrup. and he's become a head case in a mental game. this divorce was hanging out over his head, finding out the custody agreement he was going to get, building this mansion in florida that he knows he's never going to live in and it's just infected every single part of his game.

   >> and now that this divorce is final, what are the chances that he could actually come back?

   >> oh, i think anybody who writes him off is doing so at their own peril. he's too talented and too good. the question is, the guy we've been watching hit it all over the lot, who can't make the putts he made for a year, can he put, and please pardon the expression, put humpty dumpty back together again? to me it's the single most compelling story right now in all of sports.

   >> moving on to the divorce, wendy , let me ask you this, what does shared custody mean in this kind of case given we understand elin can actually take the kids to sweden ?

   >> yeah. good question because really all it means, ann , is that as a matter of law, they both have the same rights to the children but clearly they have to have a primary residence and that's absolutely going to be with elin wherever she would have wanted to be. now the law typically says you cannot take the children really far away from their father. they should be close by so that he can have reasonable visitation. we now know she is planning to raise them some of the time in sweden . i guarantee you this, tiger , if he agreed to that, only did so for a price.

   >> and this is really going to be a very tough time for the children. but turning back to tiger , how much does his legacy matter to him? you've watched him all these years. how much time does he have to fix what's now been broken?

   >> most guys don't play great after the age of 40. it's a level that he played at. he has about five years. but is he obsessed with his legacy? roger clemens may be willing to go to jail rather than admit to steroids because it affects his hall of fame chances so, yes, he's obsessed with his legacy. he's obsessed with passing jack nicklaus. a guy who knows him pretty well said to me that he never would have said this last year, nobody would have, but that jack's record of 18 majors has never looked safer because you don't know whether that thing that he has on top of talent, that confidence that he has, can ever come back. you watch him now, ann , and you can't get your mind around what you thought of him before he started playing bumper cars last thanksgiving night.

   >> mike lupica , thank you. wendy murphy, thank you for your perspective this morning. and now

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