A jury sided with the 85-year-old who will receive a cheque worth more than five times his entire on-course earnings in a 45-year career as arguably golf’s greatest player.
The Florida jury took four hours on Monday to determine that Nicklaus’s reputation had been damaged after he was subjected to “ridicule, hatred, mistrust, distrust and contempt”.
He was pictured smiling and shaking hands with his lawyers at the back of the court when the unanimous verdict was delivered.
The golfer believes an unimpeachable image as the game’s cherished “Golden Bear” has been restored after a saga that, in various forms, ran for almost a decade.
The dispute essentially began in 2017 when Nicklaus, the 18-time major champion, resigned from Nicklaus Companies. The firm was set up a decade before and handed the golfer $145m for exclusive rights to his course design services and marketing, promotional and branding rights.
A clause prevented Nicklaus from designing courses in his own right for five years, but when this non-compete condition expired in 2022, Nicklaus Companies − owned by billionaire banker Howard Milstein − sued Nicklaus for breach of contract. This effectively failed, but Nicklaus and his legal team took issue with statements made in the action − primarily about the nature of his discussions with the Saudis − and launched their own lawsuit.
“What was important in the dispute was when the company told the world Jack was selling out the PGA Tour for Saudi golf, when it was not true,” Nicklaus’s attorney, Eugene Stearns, told ESPN. “We are happy that Jack has been vindicated.”
Nicklaus accused his former company of feeding false claims to media outlets and claiming he was not mentally fit to manage his business affairs and was suffering from dementia. “What they said was, ‘you need to have the keys taken away’,” Stearns said.
Nicklaus’s legal team told the court at no point had he pursued a deal with the Saudi funders of LIV, the breakaway league which has ripped up the sport’s landscape since launching in 2022.
Court documents said he met with Golf Saudi in 2021 as part of negotiations to design a golf course in the Kingdom. Yet it was only during that meeting that Nicklaus discovered they wanted him for the leadership role with LIV Golf, with the defendants mooting a $750m fee. If that scenario had come to pass it would have caused huge ructions throughout the game, but the golfer is adamant the answer would always be no.
“According to Nicklaus, he had no interest in the offer and declined because he felt the PGA Tour was an important part of his legacy” the court documents said. “And if the PGA Tour was not in favour of a new league, he did not want to be involved.”
Greg Norman was appointed to lead LIV Golf in its formative years, with Nicklaus expressing his belief that LIV and the ensuing split was not good for the game.
However, since the PGA Tour entered peace talks with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund in 2023 − negotiations that have still to bear fruition − Nicklaus has largely kept himself out of the debate. He will obviously be praying this is the end of the controversy, with Stearns adding: “It was an unfortunate incident but hopefully now it’s over.”
Nicklaus has the right to use his own name, image and likeness, while Nicklaus Companies owns the trademarks it purchased and can continue to sell apparel and equipment with Nicklaus’s name, the “Golden Bear” moniker and logos.
The jury in this latest lawsuit cleared Milstein and another Nicklaus Companies executive, Andrew O’Brien, of personal liability.
