Jack Nicklaus awarded $50 million in defamation lawsuit - ESPN

A Florida jury on Monday awarded Jack Nicklaus $50 million in his defamation lawsuit against Nicklaus Companies, which is owned by billionaire banker Howard Milstein.

Nicklaus, 85, filed the lawsuit in response to statements that Milstein and other Nicklaus Companies officials made in a previous lawsuit in a New York court.

In the defamation lawsuit, Nicklaus claimed the defendants suggested that Nicklaus had considered a $750 million deal to become the face of the Saudi Arabian-financed LIV Golf League and disseminated those false claims to media outlets.

«It's always hard in a defamation case to prove damages to reputation, because in particular for a guy like Jack, it's always such a good one,» Nicklaus' attorney, Eugene Stearns, told ESPN on Monday. «But 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.»

In court documents, the golfer's attorneys wrote that a Nicklaus Companies official asked him to meet with Golf Saudi representatives in 2021 about designing a golf course in Saudi Arabia. During that meeting, Nicklaus learned that Golf Saudi wanted him to accept a leadership role in LIV Golf.

«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 favor of a new league, he did not want to be involved,» the court documents said.

Nicklaus claimed the defendants also alleged that Nicklaus wasn't mentally fit to manage his business affairs and was suffering from dementia.

«What they said was, 'You need to have the keys taken away,'» Stearns