Jack Nicklaus wins £37m lawsuit as documents reveal truth on £560m LIV Golf offer
Golf legend Jack Nicklaus has won a lawsuit against the company named after him, Nicklaus Companies, and been awarded £37m for defamation after false claims about a LIV Golf offer were made
Jack Nicklaus has won a £37million defamation lawsuit after a Florida jury found his former business partners spread false information that damaged his reputation. The 18-time major champion alleged that the company named after him, Nicklaus Companies, claimed he secretly negotiated a £560million deal to become the face of the LIV Golf League - which was deemed untrue.
Nicklaus, 85, resigned from an executive role at the company in 2017. That departure came a decade after folding his former company, Golden Bear International, into the group owned by billionaire banker Howard Milstein.
The PGA Tour icon filed the lawsuit in response to statements that Nicklaus Companies officials made in a previous lawsuit in New York. In the defamation case, Nicklaus claimed the defendants suggested he'd considered accepting a £560m offer from the Saudi-backed breakaway league and disseminated those false claims to the media.
According to the Palm Beach Post, a jury ruled that Nicklaus Cos. actively participated in the false publishing of facts that exposed the 85-year-old to “ridicule, hatred, mistrust or contempt."
Elsewhere in the trial, which lasted over two weeks, the golf icon said Nicklaus Companies officials had suggested he ultimately lacked the mental capacity to manage his business affairs and that he was suffering from dementia.
The jury found against Nicklaus Companies on both counts; however, it cleared Milstein, who now owns the business, and executive Andrew O'Brien of personal liability.
The six-time Masters champion's attorneys wrote in court documents that Nicklaus learned about Golf Saudi wanting him to have a leadership role in the new league during a 2021 meeting, which was set up with their representatives to discuss the design of a golf course in Saudi Arabia. His attorneys state that a Nicklaus Cos. official asked him to meet with Golf Saudi representatives.
The court documents state that, "according to Nicklaus, he had no interest in the offer and declined because he felt the PGA Tour was an important part of his legacy, and if the PGA was not in favour of a new league, he did not want to be involved."
Nicklaus' attorney Eugene Stearns also told jurors during his closing arguments: "These are the people who planted a story.
"The story is a lie... what they wanted to create in the minds of the public is that Jack Nicklaus is an old guy who sold out to the Saudis."
Stearns also disputed claims that Nicklaus Cos. executives convinced the three-time Open winner to renege on a deal to join LIV Golf. "The fact is no one intervened to save Jack Nicklaus from himself," Stearns said. "The fact is, he did not need saving. It's a lie."
He also told ESPN: "I think what was important was the dispute that arose 3½ years ago when the company told the world that Jack was selling out the PGA Tour for the Saudi golf, when it was not true. So, we're happy that Jack's been vindicated."
Nicklaus previously spoke about the situation in a 2022 interview with the Fire Pit Collective website. He said: "I was offered something in excess of $100million (£75m) by the Saudis to do the job, probably similar to the one that Greg [Norman, then LIV Golf chief executive] is doing.
"I turned it down. Once verbally, once in writing. I said, 'Guys, I have to stay with the PGA Tour. I helped start the PGA Tour.'"
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