Last week, when Craig Seebald got a text message from a friend with a headline regarding the merger of the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf leagues, he was among those stunned by the news.

“I thought they were sending me a parody article from The Onion [website],” said Seebald, one of two Washington, D.C.-based antitrust lawyers interviewed about it. “I then saw it was from the Wall Street Journal, and still didn’t believe it, thinking it was something like the [fake] Will Street Journal, and my phone blew up with people texting me about it. I was as surprised as everybody else.”