A $25 million golf event in Australia headlined by superstars Cam Smith, Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson will really test how sports fans flip-flop with their outrage.

Many have hurled venomous missiles from afar at how Greg Norman’s LIV Golf series has blown up golf as we know it with Saudi cash.

Just how authentic is that disdain? Well it is about to get a real test.

If LIV Golf is the only way for Australians to watch the elite of the game on one of our best courses are all those critics going to stay away in protest?

I suggest not. Some will be scrambling to buy tickets to be by the first tee to watch Smith, DJ, “Bryceps”, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson and friends tee off.

Golf writing colleague Evan Priest has spied a provisional schedule of LIV events for 2023. Sitting happily in the April slot is a tournament in Queensland or Sydney.

Are recent Norman haters in Brisbane going to stay at home or hop in the car to watch some of golf’s best play at Hope Island or Sanctuary Cove?

One or both of those quality courses will have been on Norman’s radar as a potential host of his $25 million event in Australia.

Those with long memories will remember Sanctuary Cove has the perfect space for a concert under the stars which is part of the entertainment package of LIV Golf.

The Ultimate Event to open Sanctuary Cove in 1988 included a golf tournament as well as stunning outdoor concerts featuring Frank Sinatra, Whitney Houston and Peter Allen.

These days, the only time a deep, truly world class field of golfers plays in Australia is when the Presidents Cup comes to town once every eight-or-so years.

In a boom time for golf, that’s ridiculous. It’s not good enough to have to wait until 2028 for the next edition Down Under in Melbourne.

This is the why the PGA of Australia has a delicate dance ahead. There has to be support shown to the PGA Tour in the stoush with LIV Golf.

There also has to be a way found to welcome LIV Golf because Australia has no other way of finding the money to host such stars on our soil.

It was much easier to get angry at LIV Golf when a “bad guy” like Patrick Reed was signing or Koepka was pledging allegiance to the PGA Tour one week and defecting to LIV Golf the next. Or bag the guy who said it isn’t about the money.

Now even the “good guys” are switching with Smith, Leishman and Harold Varner III flipping this week.

The contortions of the LIV Golf debate are endlessly fascinating.

What advice would Greg Chappell, Ash Barty, Ben Johnson, Barry Richards, Israel Folau, Rod Laver and Allan Langer give Cam Smith right now?

All have been at the absolute pinnacle of their chosen sport and either been forced into exile, boldly joined the circus, happily walked away or destroyed their own careers.

If not all world No.1s at that moment, they were in that most elite of categories where they were in the discussion.

Smith may now never reach world No.1 in golf after this week’s much-trumpeted decision to join Greg Norman and the LIV Golf tour.

That’s one of the sacrifices that current world No.2 Smith was prepared to make because the decision means the Queenslander is instantly barred from the PGA Tour.

Of course, an astonishing US $100 million sign-on fee from the Saudis’ bottomless pit of cash makes it much less of a sacrifice.

The Saudis don’t get to unsoil their poor human rights record by throwing money at sport.

That must be pursued by the United Nations as zealously as ever.

There are no world ranking points on offer for the LIV event that Smith and Leishman are playing in Boston.

Chappell knows all about that. He was the world’s best batsman at the time of cricket’s great split in the 1970s when he became one of the leading figures in World Series Cricket.

The bruises felt the same when he copped the body blows from West Indian fast bowlers Andy Roberts, Joel Garner, Michael Holding and Colin Croft. His supreme cover drives, pulls and cuts still counted for four when they sped to the boundary.

Across two years and 14 Supertests, Chappell scored five centuries and 1415 runs at 56.60 in some of the fiercest cricket ever played.

Those stellar numbers and the wickets of Dennis Lillee and Co have never been recognised in cricket’s first class records.

Smith’s LIV results are headed for the same void no matter how much he feels “it’s really a shame” that there are no rankings points at stake.

Johnson (22), Koepka (26), DeChambeau (37) and Reed (50) have all slipped in the world rankings with no points on offer. All have exemptions, through major victories, to play on in the majors as long as LIV golfers remain eligible which is the next battleground.

There is always a price to pay for disruptors in sport, however short term and even if the path they have chosen becomes more acceptable over time.

Smith copped some heckling in Boston this week at his first LIV event. So be it.

Take the great rugby league war. Those who signed for Super League forfeited the right to play traditional Test matches and the 1995 State of Origin series.

Coach Paul Vautin marshalled a team of Queensland underdogs to a famous 3-0 series victory in ‘95. The barred Langer and his Brisbane Broncos clubmates watched another group of Queenslanders become heroes, players like a teenaged Ben Ikin.

You feel most of all for sportsmen like South African batting great Barry Richards. He had no choice in his exile.

No sooner had he scored 508 runs at 72.57 against the 1970 Australians than South Africa was barred from international sport for the country’s apartheid policies.

Seven weeks. It was the only Test cricket he could ever play in a near 20-year career of excellence. He once played an over in English county cricket using just the edge of his bat, rather than the face, so unchallenged was he at one point.

Unlike some of the disingenuous quotes from golfers early in the LIV Golf split, Smith did seem to tell it how he really felt in Boston this week.

Yes, the money was a big part of it.

After eight years playing in the US, he also wanted part of his life back. To attend the weddings of mates in Australia. Go to a Broncos game. Enjoy time in Queensland with family.

“Yes, it was a business decision but also spending more time at home (in Queensland) and getting that part of my life back,” Smith said. “That’s a big up.”

Reasons for seismic disruptions in sport often have a common background.

The sport’s ruling bodies become slow-moving, resistant to change or too much of the revenue sits with administrators and suits. A longer PGA Tour season hasn’t been universally embraced by golfers.

Unlike the poorly-paid Test cricketers of the 1970s who jumped to WSC, you can build no case that golfers are underpaid. PGA Tour players have it made with their five-star ride.

Smith did suggest that golf is in flux. Players want some of their life back to enjoy their spoils. Leishman wants to spend more time with his three kids.

Smith loves that there is music on the driving range and on course at LIV events. He likes the team aspect with Leishman, Matt Jones and Wade Ormsby part of an all-Aussie “Punch GC” team.

Three times in his press conference, Smith said “this is the future of golf.”

“It’s been the same for a very, very long time. It needs to be stirred up…as golf fans become younger,” Smith said.

Golf great Gary Player disagrees as he told BBC Radio 5: “How can you ever be a champion playing a tour with 54 holes and no cut?”

On where Smith’s legacy in golf can climb, Player now has doubts: “Here’s a young man I really thought was going to be a superstar. Now what sort of future does he have? Will he be able to realise this great dream of being a champion? I don’t know.”

Smith is earnest about his commitment to Australian golf. He has always committed to play Australia’s two big events each summer.

“I think it’s exciting to bring another event to Australia,” Smith said.

It will be interesting. When the stars of golf come to Australia, under whatever banner, the crowds will turn up. Everyone can have an opinion and it is every person’s right to protest or applaud.

PS: When a follow-up to this column is written in 12 months, golf will be back together and a new “world tour” will have been born out of all the drama.

Jim Tucker has specialised in sport, the wider impacts and features for most of his 40 years writing in the media. As a golf writer, he’s covered Cam Smith’s rise from his pre-mullet days at 14 to today.