In a throwback to golf’s halcyon days in Australia, the nation’s most recent male major winner is playing in an off broadway event on the local tour this week.

Cameron Smith is teeing it up in the Queensland PGA Championship at Nudgee Golf Club in Brisbane, starting Thursday, as part of a four-event stretch where the 2022 Open champion will play in front of home fans.

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The former world number two last played his home state’s PGA Championship in 2015 – when he finished tied second – and his decision to play this week has been motivated by poor showings in Australia’s showpiece tournaments last summer.

Defending his title at the Australian PGA Championship, Smith missed the cut at Royal Queensland before finishing tied 17th at the Australian Open in Sydney the following week.

He is a three-time winner of the Australian PGA but the Australian Open crown has eluded him to date, and the burning ambition to add that trophy to his mantlepiece has prompted the unusual move to take part in the event with a total prize purse of $250,000.

“If I wasn’t playing this week, I’d probably be sitting on me bum at home doing nothing,” Smith said with a laugh.

“I thought it was a really good opportunity to help out the Aussie tour and keep the competitive reps going before the couple of big ones at the end of the year. It’s been six or seven weeks now since my last tournament so really getting out here and staying competitive.

“I didn’t have the best prep going into last year. I probably had two months off and not much practice in between.

“It was kind of a real eye opener to know what has to be done to prep for these events. Especially the Aussie ones, they’ve always been so good to me and I’d like to think I’ve got a pretty good record, and to do something like that was pretty painful.

“Don’t want to let that happen again.”

As Smith learned last summer, the local talent are no easy beats.

He the only major champion in the field at Nudgee this week, and is undisputedly the best player there.

But he knows he has got a target on his back because there are 119 other golfers striving to make a name for themselves by being the one who beat the LIV Golf star.

“I would say I’ve got the most pressure on me out of anyone,” Smith said.

“Everyone is expecting me to just come down here and win. I really don’t think that’s the case. I’ve played with a lot of these guys growing up and they’re really talented golfers. It’s going to take some of my best stuff this week to get the job done.”

There was almost a golf and rugby league crossover this week.

Smith knows Brisbane Broncos captain Adam Reynolds well and asked him if he would be his caddie for the week.

Unfortunately their schedules did not line up with Reynolds being on holidays so Smith’s coach Grant Field will carry the bag instead.

“‘Reyno’ really wanted to do it. It would have been fun for him to do it being this kind of event where people can walk around in the fairways,” Smith said.

“I won’t have him for any of the big ones though, I’m sure he’s not that good of a caddie.”

Next on Smith’s schedule is the NSW Open – which is being played at Murray Downs on the Murray River – before taking part in the Australian summer’s two most prominent events, the Australian PGA Championship and the Australian Open.

Smith’s presence is a flashback to the 1980s when the likes of Greg Norman used to play in tournaments off the beaten track to give Australians around the country the opportunity to see our brightest stars up close and personal.

The biggest beneficiaries will be the young upstarts on the PGA Tour of Australasia who are hoping to follow in his footsteps one day.

The likes of 22-year-olds Jack Buchanan and Elvis Smylie – who have won the last three tour events between them – along with new professional Quinn Croker will get a good indication of far off the game’s elite they are.

For Croker, it has a big change from almost 12 months ago when he was working as part of the grounds crew at Royal Queensland Golf Club during the Australian PGA Championship where Smith attracted packed galleries.

“To see him come home, it almost feels like you can test your game against his,” said Croker.

“Obviously it depends on the type of week he has. If he has a very good week, it’s probably going to be better than your very good week.

“But you kind of hope that maybe Sunday your name’s right next to his and you get to play the final round with him.”

In the opening two rounds, amateurs Wes Hinton and Kayun Mudadana have secured the dream grouping of playing alongside their idol.

The duo are Smith’s scholarship recipients for 2024 – the Queenslander gives out two scholarships to budding Australian amateurs every year – and they have already enjoyed a week with him in Florida where they practised and played with Smith, as well as watching the captain of the all-Australian Ripper GC at LIV Golf Chicago.

They are now pinching themselves that they will also get to play in a real tournament with Smith.

“Playing golf with Cam before this is really beneficial because we were both really nervous to play with him because Cam’s going to see every single shot we hit,” Hinton said.

“There’s going to be a lot more nerves. It’s going to be about trying to accept that, turn those nerves into excitement.

“It’s a privilege to be playing under that sort of pressure.”

The final two rounds of the Queensland PGA will be shown live and exclusive on Fox Sports and Kayo on Saturday and Sunday 12.30pm-5.30pm AEDT.