The Golden Bear might be getting up there in years, but the 85-year-old still knows how to win. On October 20, 2025, golf legend Jack Nicklaus was awarded $50 million in damages by a Florida jury in his defamation suit against Nicklaus Companies, a firm licensed to sell his publicity rights, golf course designs, and commercial endorsements. The ruling also absolved two of his former business partners of personal liability.
The decision closes over three years of legal salvos that began with Nicklaus Companies’ initial lawsuit against Nicklaus and Golden Bear Investors (GBI) in 2022, which alleged that the PGA Tour great was guilty of breach of fiduciary duty, tortious interference, and breach of contract. Nicklaus fired back with a 2023 complaint of his own in Palm Beach County, Florida, that accused Nicklaus Companies and two of its executives of spreading false stories about him brokering secret deals and suggesting he’d retired due to mental decline.
Nicklaus Companies argued that the defamation case was just a business dispute and that tarnishing Nicklaus’ reputation would be like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs, but the jury disagreed. Given the size of the settlement, a sudden death playoff in an appeals court might be on the scorecard.
Fuzzys and Tigers and (Golden) Bears, Oh My!
Long before Tiger Woods became a household name, Jack Nicklaus reigned supreme. Starting in 1962, he tallied 18 Major Championships among his 73 PGA career wins. Nicklaus was part of five Ryder Cup-winning teams, and his six wins of the prestigious Masters Tournament remain the most in history. Nicklaus was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush in 2005 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2015. He also founded the Nicklaus Children's Health Care Foundation.
Nicklaus turned his “Golden Bear” nickname into the logo of his apparel line and, after retiring from active play, began to design golf courses. In 2007, he sold the rights for business ventures using his own name to Nicklaus Companies. Both Nicklaus and Nicklaus Companies make use of Nicklaus’ reputation as one of the greatest professional golfers of all time and a longtime ambassador of the game to fuel their business affairs. The firm’s executive chairman is Howard Milstein, who financed the reported $145 million deal through his bank. He would later be named in Nicklaus’ lawsuit, along with executive vice-president Andrew O’Brien.
Nicklaus resigned from Nicklaus Companies in 2017, which triggered a five-year non-compete clause that barred him from designing golf courses. He stepped down from the board of directors in 2022. Nicklaus Companies filed a lawsuit soon after, claiming that Nicklaus had been in discussions with Saudi Arabia’s LIV Golf League on a $750 million deal to design golf courses. According to Nicklaus’s suit, the company also implied that he had stepped down because mental decline was affecting his ability to manage business affairs.
Drive for Show, Litigate for Dough
While the jury found that Nicklaus Companies was guilty of making false claims that damaged the golfer’s reputation, it ruled that Milstein and O’Brien were not personally responsible for defaming Nicklaus. In a ruling in New York earlier this year, Nicklaus retained the right to use his own image, name, and likeness, while Nicklaus Companies still owns the trademarks it purchased and had the legal right to continue selling “Golden Bear” apparel and other items using Nicklaus’s name. An arbitration judge in Florida also ruled that Nicklaus was no longer under the non-compete and could start designing golf courses again.
$50 million may go a long way toward restoring any damage to Nicklaus’s reputation, but the golf legend can’t spend the money quite yet. The defense attorneys made an oral motion for a mistrial over a comment made to the jury by Nicklaus’s attorney, Eugene Stearns. The judge has yet to issue a ruling, but regardless could indicate a planned appeal.
Related Resources
- Eleventh Circuit Rules Golfer’s Defamation Appeal Is Out-Of-Bounds (FindLaw’s Legally Weird)
- Name, Image, Likeness Laws Give Student-Athletes a Chance To Cash In (FindLaw’s Legally Weird)
- Libel, Slander, and Defamation Law: The Basics (FindLaw’s Torts and Personal Injury Law)
