"The Golden Bear Still Roars Off The Course"

Steve Schaefer of Forbes talks to Jack Nicklaus about his empire and it's probably the most revealing story I've ever read about the Golden Bear's business interests, his desire to capitalize on his brand and the arrangement he made six years ago with investor Howard Milstein.

The long list of businesses and marketing deals is impressive, with ties to names like Allen Edmonds, Perry Ellis and Rolex , giving the company the feel of a business empire. What people don’t realize though, Nicklaus says, is that he nearly lost it all twice.

Oh, we know. But about the current arrangement...

That partner is Howard Milstein who bought 49% of the company in 2006 for $145 million. Milstein, chairman and CEO of New York Private Bank & Trust, which operates Emigrant Bank, says he was a fan of Nicklaus but even more intrigued by the business opportunity.

“In the branding business you get to play offense,” says Milstein. “We don’t invest and lend money, we license and get a percentage of sales; there’s very little risk and a lot of upside.”

When the partnership began Nicklaus signed a five-year contract, but the financial crisis that followed shortly thereafter wrecked those plans.

“I didn’t think my partner would get a fair shake and I didn’t think the income would continue for my family [if I stepped away],” Nicklaus says, though he admits it was unlikely he would have left anyway.

After all, Nicklaus is hardly a figurehead. He travels incessantly, visiting courses around the world that are in various stages of design and operation, particularly in China, which both he and Milstein believe is the next great frontier for golf.

Well, the next frontier to profit from, but does anyone honestly think exporting the stagnant modern version of golf is going to be sustainable there?

There was also this about the canned beverage world.

Both the golf ball venture and the deal with Arizona have been fruits of the partnership with Milstein, who says he’s been impressed by Nicklaus’ passion for business over the last six-plus years.

“He could do half of what he’s doing and it still would be much more than most people,” Milstein says. “The essence of the man is that he loves to compete.”

That is reinforced when Nicklaus discusses the Arizona Beverage deal, which began in 2012.

“I didn’t want to step on Arnold’s toes,” he says, speaking of fellow golf legend Arnold Palmer, who was already selling his eponymous beverage (half iced-tea, half lemonade) with Arizona.

But once Palmer made it clear he had no objection, Nicklaus got back into competitor mode.

“It took Arnold six years to get to where we got in our first year,” he says of the Arizona Golden Bear Lemonade, and company projections anticipate a 50% sales increase in 2014.

Take that, you slacker!

The story goes on to detail Nicklaus’s latest venture, Fantex, a company "that aims to sell tracking stocks for athletes like Arian Foster and Vernon Davis." What could go wrong?