It is no secret that, as one of the most popular athletes, Tiger Woods has been surrounded by controversies, a little more than desired. Whether it was about his publicized divorce from his ex-wife, Elin Nordegren, or about an unfortunate near-fatal accident in 2021, Woods’s life has been partially in the public eye. His restaurant, The Woods-Jupiter, too had been a part of a couple of undesired controversies.

The aforementioned restaurant is the one where he met his ex-girlfriend Erica Herman, who later filed a case against Woods, which made him a defendant in a fatal accident case for one of his employees. Did these instances push the golfer away from the restaurant?

Who is the current owner of The Woods – Jupiter? 

Two legal disputes became part of The Woods’s history. The first one was when Erica Herman filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against the golfer. Herman was his employee, and the two developed a relationship together. As a result, she signed an NDA, which later became the cause of the dispute, as US Today reported. And second, one of his employees died accidentally after a DUI, and he was a defendant, per the Palm Beach Post. However, both cases ended in Woods’s favor.

So, after the fuss at the restaurant, did Woods decide to distance himself from it? The answer is no. The restaurant is still very much his and operates as it used to on 129 Soundings Ave., Jupiter, Florida. It’s one of the TGR projects listed on his official website. Moreover, he opened another branch in 2023 in San Lucas, Cabo.

The restaurant was started because the 82-time PGA Tour winner wanted an elevated sports bar “where friends and family could come together to relax and refuel,” the website says. It has now become a regular outing station for many from the elite class of Jupiter, Woods being one himself.

However, except for the name itself, Woods didn’t want anything else to be associated with him or the restaurant to be visited because of him. He wanted it to stand out on its own merit. But before opening one of his food ventures, the 48-year-old was met with a hurdle because of his then-partnership with Nike.

The restaurant was supposed to be called: The Tiger Woods-Jupiter

Nike and Tiger Woods were going 19 years strong when The Woods-Jupiter was started. The restaurant, as reported by the Eater, started on an $8 million fund by Woods, and was designed by developer Nicholas Mastroianni II. The designer claimed that the restaurant would have been called The Tiger Woods—Jupiter; however, could not because Nike owned the patent, and the idea had to be omitted.

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Mastroianni II said Nike “has the rights to the name Tiger Woods,” and whenever he had to use the name anywhere in the developing process, he “needs permission from Woods’s business people.”

Woods and Nike have separated now, but he still cannot use his name or the symbols because Nike holds the patent. Hence, the 15x major champion started his new partnership with TaylorMade under the name of ‘Sun Day Red’, paying homage to the tradition he started because of his mother.

Have you ever visited the GOAT’s restaurant? Let us know in the comments below.

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