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"Isn't this prostitution", you ask?
Actually I don't really think so. At this point, I'm sure he's not paying for sex so much as he's trying to contain the scandal and any further damage to his reputation AND endorsement winning abilities. If his wife didn't publicly stand with him and give him an opportunity for "redemption", then perhaps neither would a sizable portion of the general public and more importantly his corporate sponsors. If he were to get divorced right away on top of everything else that is coming out about him, that might cost him even more in lost endorsement deals than what he is agreeing to pay her.
Besides all that, there is also the fact that this woman is the mother to his K*ds, so that any immediate divorce might lead to loss of custody and diminished contact with those K*ds. Yet one more intangible, is that Tiger, despite being a celebrity, is inherently a pretty private person. All this tabloid gossip swirling around about him must be really eating him up, so I'm sure he is pretty anxious for it to die down. With all the money he has the relative pittance he is being forced to pay to keep his wife silent probably seems like a bitter pill that he is more than willing to swallow.
Finally, as to whether this amounts to P4P, what makes everyone so sure that there is anything specifically about sex in the new prenup. For all that we know, all that the new contract says is that she'll simply remain married to him. She's let him back into his own house, but we don't know whether that means she's let him back into his bedroom or whether he is sleeping on the couch or in some guest room. BTW, why is it that when a woman gets angry at a spouse or boyfriend, it is nearly always he that has to sleep on the couch and not her. It seems to me that if she's the one that has a problem and doesn't want to sleep with him it should be her that takes the walk down the hall and not him. But I digress. Back on the Tiger story, I'll go one further. I have to wonder how much action he was really getting from her even before this story all broke. We all now that couples very often have less sex the longer they've been married. Perhaps it is possible that a big part of why he strayed so often was because he wasn't getting enough at home even before this all started.
As to the wisdom of getting married and prenups, you won't find much support for that institution from this quarter. Some (foolishly) think that you're protected as long as you have a prenup and such a precaution is certainly better than going into the thing without any protection at all. However, if you're going to have K*ds with your wife as most younger guys (and even some older guys) would, you lay yourself open for being forced to give up more than you thought the prenup would allow (assuming you care at all about your K*ds).
Last comment, about what path would be best for a young sports celebrity to follow. Would it be better just to remain single and free to pursue all the wild oats and opportunities that come your way? Perhaps it would if that was all you were looking for. OTOH, if having a family (K*ds) was also an important part of your life's goals, then settling down with someone at some point would eventually have to happen. Also, while Tiger could have followed the single playboy route of someone like say Derek Jeter, would have done nearly so well on endorsements without having cultivated the wholesome image which included a beautiful wife and K*ds and no fooling around (at least as so we thought). Finally, let's say he should have stayed single so that he could pursue meaningless flings, do you really think that picking up $100 hookers at the HDR would really have flown with the general public for someone of his stature (and "role-model" status). That may work perfectly fine for us nameless schlubs, but a famous celebrity being publicly seen in such a notorious den of iniquity would definitely not have flown with sponsors whether he was single or not.
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