Jack Nicklaus wins $50M in defamation case against his former company

Golf legend Jack Nicklaus just scored one of the biggest wins of the latter half of his career — this time in court.

A Palm Beach County jury awarded the 85-year-old “Golden Bear” $50 million after finding that Nicklaus Companies, the firm he helped build, defamed him by spreading false claims that he secretly negotiated a $750 million deal to join the Saudi-backed LIV Golf League.

Jurors ruled that the company worked to publish falsehoods that damaged Nicklaus’ reputation and subjected him to “ridicule, hatred, mistrust, distrust or contempt.”

The verdict, first reported by Law360, closes a two-year feud between Nicklaus and his former partners, billionaire banker Howard Milstein and company executive Andrew O’Brien, who were cleared of personal liability in the case.

Defense lawyers insisted the case was a business dispute, not defamation, and said there was no proof the golfer suffered harm. The company has not indicated whether it will appeal.

The ruling caps a long-running and increasingly acrimonious partnership. In 2007, Nicklaus folded Golden Bear International into Nicklaus Companies in a $145 million deal financed by Milstein’s Emigrant Bank.

After stepping down as CEO in 2017, Nicklaus was bound by a five-year noncompete clause that barred him from designing golf courses or endorsing products independently.

As the clause expired in 2022, he sought arbitration to confirm his right to use his own name. Nicklaus Companies sued, accusing him of breaching agreements and of secretly negotiating with LIV Golf.

Last year, an arbiter in Florida ruled that Nicklaus was no longer bound by the noncompete and could again use his name, image and likeness, and design golf courses.

The Nicklaus name was also in the news in August, when Gary Nicklaus, Jack Nicklaus’ son, abruptly resigned from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission just before a high-stakes vote on reinstating a statewide black bear hunt.

Sources told Florida Politics the younger Nicklaus was uneasy about supporting a measure so symbolically linked to the family’s “Golden Bear” image. Gov. Ron DeSantis replaced him with businessman Joshua Kellam.