World Golf Championships events not in Scott's 2019 season plans

FILE PHOTO: Golf – The 147th Open Championship – Carnoustie, Britain – July 22, 2018 Australia’s Adam Scott in action during the final round REUTERS/Andrew Yates

(Reuters) – The grandiosely-named World Golf Championships (WGC) have, in some eyes, never really been more than glorified PGA Tour events and now one former major champion at least is thinking of totally eliminating them from his schedule.

Former world number one Adam Scott said on Wednesday that he would play only WGC events that fitted his schedule, and that this year none of them were in his plans.

The four major championships — U.S. Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship — remain the game’s gold standard and 38-year-old Scott is at the stage where he knows he must strike soon to add to his 2013 Masters Green Jacket.

“In the end I just kind of took the simple approach and thought I’ll just play the ones I like and that make sense to play,” the Australian told reporters on the eve of the Sony Open in Hawaii.

“At the moment I have not scheduled a World Golf Championship because they don’t fall in the right weeks for me.”

With the HSBC Champions already done and dusted, there are three more WGC events this PGA Tour season — the Feb. 21-24 Mexico Championship, March 27-31 Dell Match Play and the July 25-28 FedEx St. Jude Invitational.

While it is quite common for a top player to skip one event, it is unheard of for anyone to pass on all three, especially as they come with guaranteed prize money and, except for the Match Play, no cut.

Scott, ranked number one for 11 weeks in 2014, is coming off a disappointing year during which he dropped to 41st in the world.

The WGC events, three of which are owned and operated by the PGA Tour, started amid great fanfare in 1999, but never lived up to their moniker, played largely in the United States, with the occasional bone thrown to an overseas market.

Reporting by Andrew Both in Cary, North Carolina, editing by Nick Mulvenney

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source: reuters.com