Jack Nicklaus wins $50M case that redraws NIL boundaries

by Golf NIL Staff

October 20, 2025

After decades of shaping golf’s history, Jack Nicklaus has now redrawn the boundaries of his own name.

A Palm Beach County jury on Monday awarded the 85-year-old golf icon $50 million in a defamation suit against his former company, ruling that the Nicklaus Companies helped push false claims that damaged his reputation and subjected him to “ridicule, hatred, mistrust, distrust or contempt.”

Billionaire banker Howard Milstein and company executive Andrew O’Brien were also named in the case. The jury, however, didn’t hold either of them personally liable, so they won’t have to pay damages.

Jack Nicklaus makes a speech at the 2025 Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio. Brent Clark/Cal Sport Media/Alamy Live News

The case stems from a 2007 agreement in which Nicklaus Companies paid Nicklaus $145 million for exclusive rights to his golf design services and commercial use of his name, image, and likeness. Nicklaus resigned from the company in 2017, triggering a five-year noncompete that blocked him from designing courses independently. He later stepped down from the board in May 2022.

Years of strain between Nicklaus and his former company came to a head when Nicklaus Companies sued him and his firm, GBI Investors, accusing them of tortious interference, breach of contract, and breach of fiduciary duty. Among the more explosive charges: Nicklaus had diverted business opportunities for personal gain, secretly negotiated a $750 million deal with the Saudi-backed LIV Golf League, and was no longer mentally fit to manage his own business.

Nicklaus hit back, alleging that company officials spread false and damaging claims about his mental capacity, even suggesting dementia, to discredit him publicly.

Court filings also showed that a Nicklaus Companies executive, not Nicklaus, arranged his 2021 meeting with Golf Saudi under the guise of a potential course design project. Instead, Nicklaus walked into a recruitment pitch for LIV Golf—an offer he declined on the spot.

The company later characterized that meeting differently, claiming publicly that Nicklaus had secretly negotiated a $750 million deal with the Saudis. That narrative, combined with repeated questions about his mental fitness, pushed Nicklaus to sue for defamation and fight for control of his own name.

By mid-2024, the legal battle reached a key turning point.

A Florida arbitrator struck down Nicklaus’ noncompete, opening the door for him to design golf courses again under his own name. Eight months later, a New York court confirmed his right to use his own name, image, and likeness.

Today’s $50 million verdict drove the point home: even when you sell the rights to your identity, no one gets a free pass to damage it.