MEXICO CITY – In 2018, Adam Scott pared his World Golf Championship schedule and skipped the year’s first two WGC starts: Mexico and the Match Play. 

He repeated that schedule last year, figuring, “I'll just play the [tournaments] I like.”

But his WGC hiatus is over, at least for this year.

Scott, who won last week’s Genesis Invitational, is playing this week’s WGC-Mexico Championship for the first time since 2017. He said on Tuesday he also plans to play next month’s WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.

“For the last couple years, I've put World Golf Championships in and out of the schedule a little bit, trying to find what's working for me,” he said. “But as I've started playing better and better last year, to be the best player out here, you've got to play against the best, and that means coming to these events.”

The Australian’s schedule changes go beyond the WGCs. Last year at this time, Scott had played six events, including four on the West Coast. Last week’s tournament in Los Angeles was his first start in 2020 and just his fifth this season.

Scott hopes that mixing up his schedule, with scheduled starts at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, The Players and Match Play, will give him the best chance to be ready for the Masters.

“You're really right into Masters preparation off the back of The Players,” he said. “I thought the Match Play has never been the first one on my schedule, but it's another opportunity for me to see at least three competitive rounds of golf – where I'm at, what I need to work on, keep me competitively fresh with a week off before the Masters.”