(The Center Square) – Chalk up a court win for one of Florida’s three most legendary members of the golf community residing within about 40 miles of each other.
And in irony of ironies, against the former company of the man nicknamed the Golden Bear.
Jack Nicklaus won a $50 million defamation suit against the Nicklaus Companies. The winner of a record 18 majors – resident of North Palm Beach about 40 miles from Tiger Woods’ Jupiter Island home and less than 20 from President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach – resigned from the board in May 2022 and had resigned from the company in 2017, activating a noncompete clause for golf course design.
The now 85-year-old, aligned with GBI Investors, was paid $145 million by Nicklaus Companies in May 2007 for exclusive rights to his design services with all marketing, promotional and branding rights.
Billionaire banker Howard Milstein now operates Nicklaus Companies. It tried to restrict Nicklaus from using his name to promote his work and a trial judge dismissed the litigation; the famed golfer then countersued saying the company had made the claim publicly and fed to media organizations he considered $750 million to be the public face of LIV Golf.
He did not.
That initiative is backed by Saudi Arabia and its Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund linked to human rights abuses. It is accused of sportswashing under the direction of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Sportswashing means an entity, such as a government or organization, sponsors and uses sports to promote a positive image and distract attention from unethical and even criminal activity.
Nicklaus would be the least litigated recently of those big three golf aficionados residing so close to each other. Woods, 15-time major winner, last triumphed in court in May 2023 against former girlfriend Erica Herman. Trump, owner of 16 golf properties worldwide and avid player, and his administration have been pulled into courts an estimated 200 to 300 times this calendar year alone and have several notable rulings in their favor.
