Jack Nicklaus offered a perfectly reasonable counter to Howard Milstein’s claim. Now we’ll have to see what the response is from the Nicklaus Companies head suing the company namesake.
From Bob Harig’s story at Morning Read:
“They obviously called me,’’ Nicklaus said. “And we’ve had a contract on a golf course in Saudi Arabia for over a couple of years. Essentially the same group.
“So when they called Jackie — my son Jackie organized the meeting, and they came into the Bear's Club (in Florida). We met a couple of guys. John Rees and Paul Stringer from the Nicklaus companies were there because we were doing the golf course, and they proposed this thing to me.
“I did it out of courtesy to them because we're doing a golf course for them. I've got zero interest in wanting to do something like that. I don't care what kind of money they would have thrown at me. My allegiance has been to the PGA Tour. I grew up on the PGA TOUR. I helped found the PGA Tour as it is today. My allegiance is there and it’s going to stay there.’’
In an interview with Michael Bamberger, Nicklaus claimed the offer was in excess of $100 million.
It remains a curious situation given how Nicklaus and Milstein both have no qualms about doing business with Saudi Arabia, but see a line crossing when it comes to supporting a rival golf tour.
