Report - U.S. DOJ opens review of PGA Tour-Saudi alliance - ESPN

LOS ANGELES — The U.S. Department of Justice has opened a review of the PGA Tour's planned alliance with the DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, according to a report Thursday by The Wall Street Journal.

The news comes one day after U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Ron Wyden of (D-Ore.) urged U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter to scrutinize the deal and take action if it violates federal antitrust laws.

The Wall Street Journal reported that a senior PGA Tour official notified employees this week that the outcome of the deal «likely won't be known for at least a year,» and that a regulatory review could take longer than that.

A PGA Tour spokesman declined comment when asked about the report.

Wyden, chairman of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, also notified PGA Tour executives Thursday that his committee is opening a wide-ranging investigation.

Wyden is seeking clarification of the framework of the deal, including financial and leadership structure; evidence of the PGA Tour's compliance as a 501©(6) tax-exempt organization; an explanation of Ed Herlihy's «simultaneous roles as chairman of the PGA Tour Board of Directors and a partner/co-chair of Wachtell Lipton, the law firm reportedly representing the PGA Tour in the deal; and an assessment of the deal's implications for „national security, data privacy and censorship of individuals involved in the Tour.“

In a letter to PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and other executives, Wyden wrote he had „serious questions about any compensation arrangements, formal or informal, proposed as part of this merger framework intended to personally and financially benefit the already lavishly compensated