Golf legend Jack Nicklaus is no stranger to winning on the golf course. Now the Golden Bear just won a major legal battle for his renowned, worldwide brand.
Nicklaus is free to design golf courses as Jack Nicklaus again after an arbitrator ruled he was no longer under obligation to Nicklaus Companies LLC, which the golf legend no longer owns.
The back-and-forth legal battle started back in 2007 when Nicklaus sold equity in Nicklaus Companies to New York-based banker Howard Milstein, who has since acquired total ownership of the company, including the golf course design business once headed by the Golden Bear.
Nicklaus’ contract with the company included a five-year non-compete clause, and he continued to work on behalf of Nicklaus Design until May 2022. He was precluded during that period from designing courses on his own outside Nicklaus Companies.
In late 2022 Nicklaus began offering course-design services through his new company 1-JN, which operates through his family instead of Nicklaus Companies. Milstein had sought to prevent Nicklaus from using his own name and likeness as part of that new 1-JN business, but the arbitrator ruled in Nicklaus’ favor after a hearing that spanned 18 days spread over six months. The arbitrator ruled that Nicklaus “is now free to engage in the activities” once restricted by the contract’s covenants and to compete against the company that bears his name, activities that include among other things the design of golf courses and the solicitation of the Nicklaus Companies’ customers and employees.
“The arbitration process was an arduous learning experience, but I am thankful for how it ended,” Nicklaus said in a media release announcing the decision. “I get to keep doing one of the things that makes me happy – bringing new golf courses to life and making old ones new again. … I am involved in some great projects at the moment and look forward to a lot more of the same now that the effort to keep me on the sidelines has failed.”
The media release published in Golfweek Magazine said there are still conflicts between Nicklaus and Milstein.
Nicklaus Companies have filed a lawsuit against the retired golfer in New York addressing similar issues under other agreements, but the judge in that case has denied the Nicklaus Companies’ request for a preliminary injunction to prevent Nicklaus the man from designing courses in his own name, finding it unlikely that Nicklaus Companies prevail in the suit.
A trial date for that lawsuit in New York has not been set.
Nicklaus said in the media release that he is sorry his relationship with Milstein did not turn out positively and regrets “having to fight for rights that were an important part of the bargain we made back in 2007.” Nicklaus ended on a positive note:
“If you want a golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus, give me a call.”