A jury in West Palm Beach, Fla., awarded Jack Nicklaus $50 million in a lawsuit against his former company, Nicklaus Companies LLC, stemming from allegations that the company defamed him and interfered with his contractual rights.
The verdict ended roughly three years of litigation, which began in 2022 when Nicklaus’ former company first filed a lawsuit. The complaint accused Nicklaus and his personal entity, GBI Investors Inc., of breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and tortious interference, claiming the pair acted “in direct contravention of the contractual obligations they owe to Nicklaus Companies.”
On Monday, the jury found that Nicklaus Companies defamed Nicklaus by falsely suggesting he had aligned in conversations with LIV Golf and other Saudi-backed ventures. In the lawsuit, Nicklaus alleged that Nicklaus Companies executives Howard Milstein, Andrew O’Brien and others were involved in spreading false stories that Nicklaus secretly negotiated a $750 million deal to join LIV Golf. Nicklaus, 85, also claimed the defendants said he was no longer fit to manage his business affairs.
The jury also ruled in favor of Milstein and O’Brien, not holding the two personally liable, according to the Palm Beach Post.
Nicklaus’ attorney, Eugene Stearns, did not immediately respond to a request for comment at the time of publication.
In a lawsuit filed May 13, 2022, in the New York Supreme Court, Nicklaus Companies claimed that the 18-time major champion “engaged in business activities damaging to the brand and other intellectual property owned by the company,” including making personal endorsement and licensing arrangements without approval and diverting course-design opportunities away from the firm.
The company said those actions caused “financial and reputational harm.”
Nicklaus denied those claims made by his former company, calling them “false and deeply damaging” to his reputation. The monetary award follows Nicklaus’ separate litigation over the use of his name, image and likeness and a Florida arbitration ruling that had previously cleared the way for him to return to independent course-design work.
In 2007, Nicklaus and his entity, GBI Investors, Inc,. sold the exclusive rights to his golf course design, commercial endorsements and publicity rights to Nicklaus Companies at a sale valued around $145 million, according to the document. The company alleged Nicklaus violated the company’s exclusive rights by making personal endorsement and licensing deals without the company’s approval.
The complaint also alleged that Nicklaus privately met with officials from Golf Saudi and the Public Investment Fund, which the company says it intervened to stop the deal to “save Mr. Nicklaus from himself” and avoid public backlash. The complaint also accused Nicklaus and GBI of steering clients away from Nicklaus Companies toward private, personal deals, citing a pattern of behavior where potential corporate opportunities were concealed or redirected.
In April 2025, New York Civil Division Supreme Court Judge Joel M. Cohen ruled that Nicklaus had the right to use his own name, image and likeness, while Nicklaus Companies owned the trademarks it purchased and could continue to sell apparel and equipment with Nicklaus’ name, “Golden Bear” moniker and logos.