When Jack Nicklaus won the lawsuit against his namesake company, it was considered a major victory for the Golden Bear. Little did anyone expect that it was only a stepping stone toward something bigger.

Nicklaus Companies filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November and now, 20 Majors LLC, a company tied to Jack Nicklaus’s family, has won the bankruptcy court approval for acquiring the assets and the brand for Nicklaus Companies. The overall valuation for the same has been fixed at a whopping $35.7 million. The manager of the 20 Majors LLC, Rory Brown, is also the managing partner of Nicklaus Brown & Co. along with Jack Nicklaus’s son, Gary.

20 Majors LLC secured the acquisition following a Monday ruling by Craig T. Goldblatt of the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. This marks the end of a protracted dispute between Jack Nicklaus and the company that bears his name.

Speaking on the latest development, Nicklaus’s attorney, G. David Dean, said, “This sale marks the start of a new day for the company but also an end to four years of litigation between Mr. Nicklaus and Mr. Milstein, a result I think everyone is happy to see.”

Nicklaus reportedly agreed to cease the litigation against Howard Milstein, including the $50M defamation lawsuit he won. He will also let go of certain claims in the estate. All in all, the 86-year-old will let go of $57M worth of claims. However, he will receieve $1.2M once the sale is closed, per Bloomberg News.

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In turn, Milstein has decided to forego a portion of his pre-petition claims, which amounts to about $225M. But his company will be allowed a $250M unsecured claim, per reports.

The settlement will preserve the brand’s legacy and keep it within Nicklaus’s family. More importantly, it marks the end of a bitter dispute that dragged Jack Nicklaus to courtroom.

The long history of Jack Nicklaus’s legal dispute against Nicklaus Companies

In 2007, Howard Milstein, a New York businessman, offered to invest $145 million in Nicklaus Companies. The 18-time major champion accepted the proposal. He resigned from the company in 2017 and was subsequently barred from independently designing any course for five years.

In 2022, Jack Nicklaus stepped down from the board of the company as well. However, Nicklaus Companies filed a lawsuit against the veteran golfer which started a legal quagmire that ended in the bankruptcy protection filing in 2025.

In 2024, a court ruled that Jack Nicklaus can independently design golf courses, quashing Milstein’s litigation to bar him from doing so. The Golden Bear subsequently filed a $50M defamation lawsuit against the company, claiming Milstein falsely spread the narrative that he was interested in taking up a $750M offer from Golf Saudi to become face of LIV Golf.

Nicklaus said he never considered the offer. On top of that, he further alleged that the meeting with Golf Saudi officials was supposed to be about a course design in the gulf nation. Only after entering the meeting, he learned of LIV Golf’s proposal.

The defamation filing also revealed that Milstein & Co. alleged Nicklaus, due to his age, lacked the mental capacity to take business decisions on his own. The court ruling was in favor of the 18-time major champion. Just weeks after the verdict, Nicklaus Companies LLC filed for bankruptcy protection to protect its assets, clients and employees.

The company’s debt reached a jaw-dropping $476M. In the bankruptcy protection filing, Nicklaus Companies listed the valuation of its assets somewhere between $40M to $50M. Meanwhile, its total liability ranged from $500M to $1B.

But now, 20 Majors LLC will take over certain obligations of the company, which is positive news for the Golden Bear and his countless admirers.