How Jack Nicklaus got his company back

After four years, litigation in three states, and a water hazard full of bad blood, the epic legal battle between Jack Nicklaus (the company) and Jack Nicklaus (the person) is over. Flesh-and-blood Jack won.

“We felt like we were on the right side all along,” Nicklaus told me, “and it turned out that we were.”

That’s the gist. In the (slightly) longer version, the saga began in 2007, when Nicklaus (again, the person) sold a 50-percent interest in the corporation known as the Nicklaus Companies (which included both his golf course design and name-licensing businesses) to Howard Milstein, a billionaire New York banker who also has major interests in the golf industry, for $145 million. (Milstein owns, among other things, Golf Magazine.)

As for the Nicklaus-Milstein relationship, Nicklaus told me, “We didn’t agree on very many things.” That’s what’s known as an understatement.

After years of disputes about issues ranging from business strategy to Nicklaus’ use of a private plane, Jack-the-person removed himself from the company in 2022 and filed an arbitration case in Florida to sort out their differences. In response, Milstein sued Nicklaus in state court in New York, a case which, after the customary delays, Nicklaus mostly won.

In the course of that litigation, Milstein claimed in court papers that Nicklaus had entertained a $750 million offer to become the public face of the LIV tour. As a founder and loyal member of the PGA Tour, Nicklaus said that was a lie and sued Milstein in Florida for defamation. After the customary delays in that case as well, a jury awarded Jack-the-person a judgment of $50 million against Jack-the-company.

But wait: there’s more. In an apparent attempt to avoid paying the $50 million, Milstein put the Nicklaus Companies into bankruptcy in Delaware. After Jack challenged that maneuver, the parties at last reached a settlement. Jack would give up trying to collect the defamation judgment, and with investors he bought back Milstein’s half of the Nicklaus Companies for $35.7 million. Basically, the company returned to the pre-2007 status quo.

So what does this all mean?

“I didn’t do it for me,” Nicklaus said, “I’m 86 years old. This was for my legacy and for my family.”

Jack Nicklaus in the family office (left), New York real estate and banking magnate Howard Milstein

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The company will become what Nicklaus seemingly preferred it to be all along: a family enterprise. Over the course of the long dispute with Milstein, Jack parted ways with longtime family retainers, including Scott Tolley and Andy O’Brien, and turned over leadership of the company to his children. His son Gary, a former PGA Tour pro, will be the chief executive of the Nicklaus Companies, and Jack Nicklaus II, the eldest, who is known as Jackie or J2, will be the chief golf course designer. And Jack Nicklaus himself is going to continue to design courses for as long as he’s able. Indeed, as a favor to his friend President Donald Trump, Nicklaus is now leading a renovation of 45 holes at Joint Base Andrews, the home of Air Force One, in Maryland.

The uncertainty about who really controlled the Nicklaus name had hurt Jack’s design business in recent years. “Every golf course owner would ask, what about your legal issues? Am I going to get sued if I do a contract with you?” Nicklaus said. There was even uncertainty about a project undertaken to design side-by-side courses in the Bahamas with Tiger Woods. For now, though, Nicklaus is just concerned about Woods’ well-being.

“Tiger has been a good friend of mine for a long time,” he said, “I feel bad for him. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but he obviously needs some help somewhere.” (On Tuesday, Woods posted on social media that he was stepping away from golf “to seek treatment and focus on my health.”)

When we spoke, Nicklaus was getting ready to make his annual pilgrimage to Augusta for the Masters, which he hasn’t missed since 1959 when he played as an amateur and where he later won six times. He’ll be contributing to Amazon’s debut in covering the tournament, and, of course, he’ll be hitting the ceremonial first shots with Gary Player and Tom Watson. The years have taken their toll on Nicklaus’ golf game. “I played once last year,” he said, “And I shot 89, which I thought was pretty good. I hadn’t broken 90 in two years.”

But as for that opening drive, his goal is modest. “I just hope I don’t kill anybody,” he said.

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