(Reuters) -The U.S. Justice Department will review the PGA Tour's plan to merge with Saudi-backed LIV Golf to determine if it violates antitrust law, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The PGA Tour, DP World Tour and rival Saudi-backed LIV circuit, which had been involved in a bitter fight that split the sport, announced an agreement last week to merge and form one unified commercial entity.
The Justice Department had previously opened a probe into the PGA Tour's strategies for trying to keep its players from defecting to LIV.
The LIV Golf series is bankrolled by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund. Critics have accused it of being a vehicle for the country to improve its reputation -- "sportswashing" -- as it faces criticism of its human rights record.
(Reporting by Diane Bartz in Washington and Shubhendu Deshmukh in Bengaluru, Editing by Franklin Paul and Jonathan Oatis)
