Inside Jack Nicklaus court case as golf legend wins $50m suing company carrying his name
A Florida court awarded the damages against Nicklaus Companies after a bitter public fallout and a defamation trial
Jack Nicklaus, the winner of a record 18 Majors, has another victory to celebrate. The time the Golden Bear, 85, has triumphed not on a golf course but in a Florida court room where he was awarded $50m (£37m) in a defamation lawsuit against his former business partners and a company which still carries his famous name.
A Palm Beach County jury found that the Nicklaus Companies had published false facts that damaged the reputation of golf's greatest ever player and exposed him to "ridicule, hatred, mistrust, distrust or contempt”.
According to the lawsuit, Nicklaus claimed that executives at the company had spread untrue rumours that he considered a $750million deal to join the Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf League and that he was suffering from dementia and no longer mentally fit to manage his affairs.
His lawyer Eugene Stearns said: “What they wanted to create in the minds of the public is Jack Nicklaus is an old guy who sold out to the Saudis.”
The trial started on September 29 and lasted three weeks. But the acrimony between the two sides had been growing for years and ended in a public fight and a bitter legal battle over the use of the Nicklaus brand.
Back in 2007, Nicklaus folded his company Golden Bear International into a new entity called Nicklaus Companies in a $145m deal. According to the Palm Beach Post, this was financed through New York banker Howard Milstein’s Emigrant Bank and the debt structure meant billionaire Milstein controlled the firm. Andrew O’Brien ran daily operations. It was to be an unhappy marriage.
In 2017, Nicklaus retired from his executive role but a non-compete agreement stated that he could not design golf courses or endorse other products for five years. Before the end of the clause in 2022, Nicklaus sought a court ruling in Florida to confirm he could once again use his own name in business. Nicklaus Companies sued the former golfer in a New York court claiming he had breached their deal, including holding the secret talks to join LIV Golf.
The allegations came at the height of the LIV-PGA Tour war and attracted big headlines. The Nicklaus lawsuit claimed that these rumours were spread by Nicklaus Companies along with stories that he had dementia and had his car keys taken away.
Nicklaus had already stated in 2022 that he had turned down more than $100million to be LIV’s frontman ahead of Greg Norman. “Once verbally, once in writing,” Nicklaus told the Fire Pit Collective. “I said, ‘Guys, I have to stay with the PGA Tour. I helped start the PGA Tour’ ”
Earlier this year, a New York judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Nicklaus Companies to prevent Nicklaus from using his name, image and likeness to promote his golf course design business.
And after repeated efforts by Milstein and O’Brien to have the defamation case thrown out, it finally came to court in Florida. Nicklaus Companies' lawyer claimed executives never defamed Nicklaus and argued the case was basically a business dispute.
The jury disagreed - and Nicklaus is free to design golf courses under his own name even if Nicklaus Companies retains the rights to sell clothing and equipment with Jack Nicklaus logos.
Nicklaus’ lawyer Stearns added: "He deserved better than what he got, and we're pleased that the jury addressed the particular circumstances that were so annoying.”