LOS ANGELES >> The toughest test in golf takes on several meanings for this U.S. Open.

Tough usually starts with the golf course, and the North course at Los Angeles Country Club figures to be every bit of that, even if it’s a mystery to most. It has never hosted anything of national significance except for the Walker Cup in 2017.

This will be the third time since 2015 the U.S. Open goes to a course for the first time.

Tough for this U.S. Open is also just getting there. The storied club is located between Wilshire and Sunset boulevards on the edge of Beverly Hills. And if that doesn’t suggest big traffic, it’s about 5 miles off the notorious 405 freeway.

“I’ve been to LA Country Club,” Masters champion Jon Rahm said. “I remember when we were there — I think it had already been announced that the U.S. Open would be there — and my first thought was, ‘How the heck are they going to fit anything around here?’ And second, ‘How are we going to get around the traffic in this place?’

“Golf course-wise, yeah, the golf course is high quality. The golf course could host any event you want,” he said. “It’s just logistically. To me, it was the hardest part to understand.”

And it’s tough on the USGA for personal reasons.

Instead of celebrating the first U.S. Open in Los Angeles in 75 years, it’s almost as though the USGA is having to remind everyone the 123rd edition of the U.S. Open starts Thursday.

All that seems to be on anyone’s mind is the shock announcement of a deal between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabian wealth fund — bitter adversaries turned partners — and more specifically what it all means for rival upstart LIV Golf.

Chatter about the par-3 15th hole — it could play as short as 80 yards for one round — has given way to whether players felt betrayed by PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan and whether LIV defectors will be welcomed back.

It even overshadows the USGA proposal to roll back the golf ball. Maybe it’s not all bad.

The USGA was inundated with requests for media credentials over the last four days from outlets that ordinarily don’t cover golf (most were denied), mainly because the interest in sport goes beyond golf right now — even beyond the second-oldest championship in golf.

“We’re looking for a harmonious world of golf,” Justin Rose said. “That’s not going to be overnight. Obviously, there’s a lot of players that you guys want to watch — we all know who they are on LIV. They’ve got a lot to offer the game of golf. I think just because they made a certain decision doesn’t mean they’re outcasts forever.”

The Masters did so much in showing golfers can get along no matter where they play or who pays them. The same was true at Oak Hill for the PGA Championship, even with Brooks Koepka of LIV Golf winning his fifth major and restoring his reputation as a beast in the majors.

Now?

There are 14 players from Saudi-backed LIV Golf in the field, only slightly fewer than the previous two majors because of fewer exemptions to an Open. But there is palpable consternation from the PGA Tour side that LIV players took big Saudi money and might be able to return. No one knows how that will play out. Then again, no one knows much of anything about the deal among the PGA Tour, European tour and Saudi’s Public Investment Fund.

But there are hard feelings, as strong as ever.

“For the guys that did turn down significant amounts of money, then that’s probably a tough one to swallow and I feel for them,” defending U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick said.