SIDELINES : Palmer Suing Japanese Company

Arnold Palmer is suing a Japanese company for backing out of a $46-million deal to buy his Bay Hill Golf Club and using his name “to try to turn a quick profit.”

Palmer is seeking $11 million, including $6 million in punitive damages, from WDI Systems Inc.

The lawsuit charges that officials of the Japanese company illegally used Palmer’s name to sell high-priced club memberships in Japan and secretly planned to jettison the transaction “if their efforts to profit failed,” according to the lawsuit.

“He has never been treated this way,” Palmer’s lawyer, Ed Adkins, said Tuesday. “He doesn’t like being associated with anything like this. He just doesn’t operate this way.”

WDI sued Palmer and other club owners in May, seeking the return of a $3-million deposit for the Orlando-area club and golf course, which is on the PGA tour schedule. WDI said it was dropping its offer because the club buildings were riddled with cancer-causing asbestos materials and that underground fuel tanks violated state standards.