Jack Nicklaus has been awarded $50 million by a Florida jury in a defamation lawsuit against his former company.
The Palm Beach Post reported that a jury found that the Nicklaus Companies actively participated in false publishing of facts that damaged the golf legend’s reputation and exposed him to “ridicule, hatred, mistrust or contempt.”
Among the issues Nicklaus raised in his suit was that his former business partners tried to harm his reputation by leaking information in 2022 that he had met with the Saudi backers of the LIV Golf League, who were offering him a position as an ambassador.
The newspaper reported that billionaire banker Howard Milstein, the executive chairman of the Nicklaus Cos. and executive Andrew O’Brien, both of whom were named individually in the lawsuit, were not found personally liable.
The trial lasted more than two weeks.
“We tremendously appreciate the time that the jury put into this case,” said Eugene Stearns, Nicklaus’s attorney. “They were extraordinarily conscientious and dedicated, and I’m not going to quarrel with their outcome because it really was their decision.”
Nicklaus had yet to release a statement late Monday.
The Golden Bear, a 18-time major winner who is now 85, alleged in the lawsuit filed in 2023 that the two men and others in the company had spread false stories that he secretly negotiated a $750 million deal to join LIV Golf and that he was no longer mentally fit to manage his affairs.
Nicklaus later said that he took a meeting with the Saudi backers of LIV Golf as a courtesy, as his company had done golf design work in the country.
“These are the people who planted a story,” the newspaper quotes Stearns as telling jurors during closing arguments. “The story is a lie. ... What they wanted to create in the minds of the public is Jack Nicklaus is an old guy who sold out to the Saudis.”
Nicklaus had folded his former company, Golden Bear International, into a new group called Nicklaus Companies that was financed through Milstein’s Emigrant Bank. It amounted to a loan from his own institution into a company he was buying into, according to the Palm Beach Post.
In 2017, Nicklaus retired from his executive role with the company which triggered a non-compete agreement that went into effect for five years, meaning the golfer could not design golf courses or endorse products outside of the company.
After a Non-Compete Expired, Nicklaus Sought to Use His Own Name Again
In 2022, as the non-compete clause was nearing an end, Nicklaus sought arbitration to confirm he could again use his own name in business. That is when the Nicklaus Cos. sued him in New York, accusing the golfer of breaching agreements, including the secret talks to partner with LIV Golf.
Attorneys for Milstein and the Nicklaus companies argued that Nicklaus’s reputation was not harmed and that they had no intention of hurting his reputation.
“There is no evidence any business was lost,” attorney Barry Postman said during closing arguments.
“No evidence money was lost. His reputation is as stellar as its always been. His life is as stellar as it’s always been. There’s no damages.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Jack Nicklaus Wins Massive Award in Defamation Lawsuit Against Nicklaus Companies.