TWIGB: Tiger Woods does not owe Elin Nordegren $54 million

Tiger Woods is rumored to still owe a ton of money to his ex-wife. This is why you should never read gossip sites. Earlier in the week gossip writer Jose Lambiet wrote that Tiger Woods "must pay ex-wife Elin Nordegren $54 million by January 15, 2016" or he's likely to lose his home. On the surface that sounds horrible. But apparently it isn't true.

As Ryan Ballengee of The Golf News Net explains, Woods "took out a mortgage on his Jupiter, Fla., home in the value of $54.5 million." That is basically half of the overall divorce settlement between Woods and Nordegren, valued at roughly $110 million back in 2010. Nordegren was to serve as the issuer of the mortgage through an LLC, which required the mortgage be paid in full by Jan. 15th.

Confused? Don't worry. None of us will ever have that type of money.

Technically speaking, however, Woods did owe $54.5 million to Nordegren in the form of mortgage payments...five years ago. A big part of the settlement -- which was omitted in Lambiet's piece but included in Ballengee's -- was that the debt would be paid via regular monthly mortgage payments.

Which means that it is highly unlikely that Woods still owes the totality of the mortgage amount today since he would have had to not make any payments toward his home for five years for that to be true. Obviously doing so would have cost him his home long before today.

Lesson learned today: never read gossip site reports on anything related to Tiger Woods.