Years before revelations of a secret plan to add golf courses to state parks would rock Florida politics, a clue about how it could unfold was dropped during a dinner conversation in a hotel suite in Washington, D.C.

The event: A private dinner of Republican political donors. The guest of honor: Then-President Donald Trump.

In video footage released in 2020, Trump can be heard chatting with Jack Nicklaus III, the grandson of famed golfer Jack Nicklaus who would later play a part in the now-dashed plans to build a golf course in Florida’s Jonathan Dickinson State Park. Around the dinner table, Trump and the grandson discussed how the elder Nicklaus was barred from designing courses for five years because of a non-compete clause with his former company.

Trump appeared to sympathize, referencing the golf legend’s age by saying: “At 78, five years is a long time.” The president added: “You don’t want to waste five years.”

Then the grandson said Nicklaus may be able to work around the clause if there’s a “charitable aspect” to a potential project. “He’s going to find a way to do some work,” Nicklaus III said.

The comment went unreported upon the video’s release while other aspects of the recording drew more attention because they related to Trump’s second impeachment. In hindsight, though, the remark suggests how the Florida park plan may have taken shape. The proposal which included adding hotels and pickleball courts to nine state parks, was scuttled by Gov. Ron DeSantis after reporting by the Tampa Bay Times sparked a wave of bipartisan outrage. But what remained unclear throughout the project’s rise and fall was the role played by a veterans charity called Folds of Honor.

The Oklahoma-based nonprofit, with ties to Nicklaus, pitched state officials, including the governor, on plans to build golf courses on state park land.

The grandson’s remarks in the footage implied that he viewed charitable partnerships as a way for Nicklaus to work around his prohibitive clause. The non-compete agreement expired in 2022, an arbitrator has ruled, but Nicklaus is still embroiled in legal disputes with his former company, including over his rights to promote golf courses using his name.

The comment has become more relevant after Trump was elected to a second term. Trump’s transition team did not respond to emails seeking comment.

The architects of the proposal, including state officials, “were trying to build some support for it through the charitable intent, but it didn’t change anybody’s position with regard to the craziness of putting a golf course in a pristine natural area, protected as a state park,” said Clay Henderson, an environmental lawyer who’s closely followed the proposals. Henderson is the author of “Forces of Nature,” considered a definitive work of Florida’s land conservation history.

Nicklaus has built a reputation around his philanthropy, and it’s not unusual for famous athletes to work with charitable causes. But new details about his role in the Florida controversy add clarity to a facet of the Florida state park scandal that has remained murky: why and how Folds of Honor was involved.

Gene Stearns, a lawyer representing Jack Nicklaus, said the golfing legend’s team has “all been puzzled about that tape recording,” but the legal wrangling over his rights and his charitable work are “absolutely unrelated issues.”

Folds of Honor is “an enormously successful charity that Jack has supported for a very long time,” he added, before the Florida state park controversy and most of the golfer’s legal disputes.

The charity and the famed golfer

Folds of Honor’s connection to the the state parks controversy first came to light in August, when the Times reported that its leader had previously pitched both state and local government officials on building golf courses at Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Martin County. Folds of Honor gives scholarships to the spouses and children of killed or disabled service members and first responders. It raised $55 million in 2022, its most recent public filings show. One way that it raises money is by holding golf tournaments.

The charity has a close relationship with Nicklaus. He designed the American Dunes golf club in Michigan that “memorializes the birthplace” of Folds of Honor, according to its website. Nicklaus designed that course for free, according to his lawyer, and American Dunes donates all its profits to the group. On its homepage, the golf course features a slow-motion video of Nicklaus walking the property and proclaims it as “The church Jack built.”

At least one staffer works for both the famed golfer and the veterans’ charity: Scott Tolley, a representative for Nicklaus, holds the position of corporate impact officer at Folds of Honor. Tolley did not respond to emails requesting comment.

American Dunes in many ways served as a model for what Folds of Honor hoped to bring to Florida state park land: a course designed by Nicklaus that would benefit the charity. The nonprofit’s leaders cited the Michigan course in presentations made to officials here.

Stearns, Nicklaus’ lawyer, confirmed that Folds of Honor sought to build a golf course at the Martin County state park and asked the famous golfer if he would design it.

“Jack said he would do it for free if they had a right to do it,” Stearns said. “I think it became clear that support for the park was greater than support for another public golf course.”

A Folds of Honor-affiliated group called the Tuskegee Dunes Foundation abandoned the Jonathan Dickinson golf course proposal after the public backlash.

Neither the charity’s spokespeople nor its leader, Lt. Col. Dan Rooney, responded to emails requesting comment.

The Florida debacle wasn’t the first time a Nicklaus-connected course was proposed on sensitive land. In 2023, locals in the Washington, D.C., area were outraged to learn of a potential Nicklaus golf course in a conservation area belonging to the U.S. Navy, according to The Washington Post. Those plans have not materialized.

To Henderson, the environmental lawyer, the state parks scandal has unearthed several, previously unknown truths about land conservation in Florida. A big one, in his eyes: The guardrails the public thought were in place to protect state parks don’t exist.

At least one state Republican lawmaker will attempt to change that this upcoming legislative session.

Sen. Gayle Harrell, who represents the district that includes Jonathan Dickinson State Park, filed a bill last week to prohibit golf courses, pickleball courts, hotels and similar amenities on state park land.

“It codifies protections for our state parks and clearly defines what one of their main functions is: to preserve and protect the natural habitat,” said Harrell, a Republican.

Harrell previously told the Times that Rooney, head of Folds of Honor, approached her last year about drafting a bill to build three golf courses, one with accommodations for people with disabilities, at Jonathan Dickinson. Harrell advised the group against the idea, she said.

More information about Nicklaus’ involvement in the state park fiasco may emerge in courtrooms where the golfer and his former companies are still battling over the rights to use and promote his name.