Golf Services Business Founded by Jack Nicklaus Files Bankruptcy After $50 Million Defamation Verdict in His Favor
Florida-based company seeks protection from creditors, saying it has only $750,000 in cash against total debts of roughly $550 million
By Becky Yerak
Nov. 24, 2025 6:02 pm ET
Nicklaus Cos., a golf-course designer and marketer of Jack Nicklaus products, has filed for bankruptcy after being hit with a $50 million defamation verdict in favor of the legendary golfer and company founder.
The Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.-based company lost a defamation lawsuit to Nicklaus last month stemming from allegedly false statements about how Nicklaus wanted to accept a leadership role with LIV Golf, the Saudi-backed league. Nicklaus Cos. also owes nearly $500 million to financial lenders, according to papers filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del.
Nicklaus Cos., founded in 2007 when Nicklaus sold a large stake in his design, equipment manufacturing and licensing businesses, is expected to explore a sale of its business or a reorganization in chapter 11.
While the company disagrees with the jury award, it wasn’t able to post a bond while it appealed, Chief Executive Philip Cotton said in a document filed Sunday. Nicklaus Cos. has cash on hand of $750,000.
Aside from the damages awarded to its founder, the company has had trouble paying its debts, Cotton said in the filing, which include the $145 million secured convertible loan that financed the acquisition of a substantial stake in Nicklaus’s intellectual property and other assets by real-estate developer and banker Howard Milstein, also a former Nicklaus Cos. chairman.
In 2017, Nicklaus terminated his employment agreement with the company but continued on an at-will basis. He also continued to serve on the board and to help the company get new design and endorsement contracts. But in 2022, he left the board and told the company he wouldn’t accept new design or endorsement projects, according to Cotton’s statement.
Years of litigation ensued between Nicklaus and Milstein, Cotton said in the sworn declaration. Nicklaus alleged that the company’s statements “tended to subject Mr. Nicklaus to hatred, distrust, ridicule, contempt and disgrace, and injure him in his profession,” according to his defamation complaint. Nicklaus, 85, who won a record 18 major tournaments as a pro golfer, also alleged that the company wrongly said that he had dementia.
The company has arranged $17 million in financing from Milstein-affiliated FundNick to help it get through bankruptcy.
Nicklaus Cos. or its predecessors have designed or renovated more than 440 courses worldwide, with more than 65 additional courses under way, the court filing said. Last year, the company’s sales totaled $17.6 million.
Nicklaus Cos. is represented in its bankruptcy by law firms Richards Layton & Finger and Weil Gotshal & Manges, financial adviser Alvarez & Marsal, and investment banker Cassel Salpeter.
The bankruptcies of Nicklaus Cos. and affiliates, including GBI Services, have been consolidated under number 25-12089 and assigned to Judge Craig Goldblatt.
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