Arbitrator rules in favor of the Golden Bear
Jack Nicklaus, the Golden Bear, is free to design golf courses once more.
A dispute between Nicklaus and the company he founded has been resolved. An arbitrator appointed to resolve a dispute between Jack W. Nicklaus and Nicklaus Companies, LLC has determined that Nicklaus is free to compete with the company that bears his name.
After a final hearing that spanned 18 days over six months, the arbitrator ruled that the restrictive covenants in Nicklaus’s employment agreement expired on June 1, 2022.
“He is now free to engage in the activities” once restricted by those covenants, which includes, among other things, the design of golf courses and the solicitation of the the Nicklaus Companies’ customers and employees.
“The arbitration process was an arduous learning experience, but I am thankful for how it ended,” Nicklaus said. “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.
“My goal has always been to create courses that challenge tour professionals yet still provide an enjoyable experience for the many golfers whose love for the game might be greater than their ability,”{ Nicklaus said.
“I also try to respect the natural environment that existed before I showed up with a pencil and paper in hand,” he said. “ 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.”
A Jack Nicklaus partnership gone awry
The Nicklaus Companies website displays a photo of Jack Nicklaus, along with Executive Chairman Howard Milstein in the companies’ “leadership section.”
Although Jack Nicklaus’s photo appears elsewhere on the site, and the site has a whole section entitled “Jack” devoted to his biography, awards, career and even a swing tip from him, it does not list him as an officer of the company.
However, with no small amount of possibly unintentional irony, the website displays this quote from Milstein:
“Jack Nicklaus once said that one of the most important decisions a golfer can make is picking the right partner. In 2007, the Golden Bear selected Howard Milstein as his partner with two important goals:
“1. Institutionalize the Nicklaus brands to last for generations beyond Jack’s lifetime.
“2. Add to the Jack Nicklaus legacy through the Nicklaus Companies and its two core businesses in Golf Course Design and Marketing.”
Regarded by many as the best to ever play the game, Nicklaus’s 18 major championships established a record in professional golf that may never be surpassed. He is also one of the game’s most acclaimed golf course designers, with more than 300 golf courses to his credit around the world.
Parting ways in 2017
After the Golden Bear retired from competitive golf in 2005, he was urged to monetize a minority interest in certain of his businesses – including his golf course design business.
That led to a relationship with Milstein, a New York businessman, whose family now owns and controls the Nicklaus Companies.
Nicklaus sold a little less than half of the equity in his businesses in connection with that transaction, but the Great Recession of the late 2000s coupled with the terms of the new relationship reduced the Nicklaus family’s equity to zero and allowed Milstein to gain complete control and ownership of the Nicklaus Companies. Milstein then acquired other golf-related businesses, including Golf magazine, TrueSpec, and a variety of golf equipment and service enterprises.
Nicklaus ended his employment with the Companies in June 2017 and was then subject to a five-year non-compete provision, which precluded him from providing golf course design services except through the Nicklaus Companies.
He continued to perform design services through the Nicklaus Companies until May 2022, when he severed his professional relationship with the Nicklaus Companies.
In late 2022, Nicklaus began offering golf course design services through a subsidiary of the Nicklaus Family Office known as 1-JN.
‘If you want a golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus …’
The just-concluded arbitration is not the only forum in which Mr. Nicklaus and the Nicklaus Companies are embroiled.
Shortly after the arbitration began, the Nicklaus Companies filed a lawsuit in New York addressing similar issues under other agreements. The judge presiding over the New York case denied the Nicklaus Companies’ request for a preliminary injunction to prevent Nicklaus from designing golf courses in his own name, finding it unlikely that the Nicklaus Companies would prevail.
A trial in the New York case has not been set.
Nicklaus said 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.” However, he was able to end on a positive note, stating: “If you want a golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus, give me a call.”
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Featured image of Howard Milstein (left) and Jack Nicklaus: The Nicklaus Companies
