Few players have been affected more by the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic than Scott.

Shortly before the world was put on pause Scott had won the Australian PGA Championship and Genesis Invitational in consecutive starts and climbed back to No.7 in the Official World Golf Rankings.

He has gone winless in the two years since and will start his 2022 campaign at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship ranked No.51 in the world, the first time he has been outside the top 50 since August 2018.

The 41-year-old has spoken openly about the personal difficulties he has had managing life on tour with his young family the past two years but is approaching the new year with a positive mindset and a new starting point.

Scott has not played in the Middle East since 2009 when he was the defending champion at the Commercialbank Qatar Masters but with two victories in the region the Queenslander is hoping to tap into some former glories and start anew.

“A change in the schedule, a fresh start, it all feels really good for me,” said Scott, who will also play the Dubai Desert Classic for the first time in 20 years next week.

“It was a frustrating year and that was following on from getting a bit better balance given the circumstances everywhere around the world.

“A big change for me is joining the DP World Tour and starting my year here. It’s been a lot of years since I played here in the Middle East but I’ve had some success winning in this region a couple of times in the past.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve played on the DP World Tour and it’s nice to be back out here in the Middle East at this time of year.

“A new venue here at Yas, it’s going to be a great week, the course is fantastic and I’m looking to get the year off to a hot start.”

Given a greater alignment between the DP World Tour and PGA TOUR the opportunities to play across both tours is far more feasible than it has been in recent times.

The Scottish Open, Barbasol Championship and the Barracuda Championship will now count towards both moneylists and provide players such as Scott with greater flexibility in building their schedule and finding the perfect balance between their work and personal lives.

“I’ve worked really hard on many things in the game, things that affect my game around me and having that balance right and just staying really positive,” added Scott, whose unveiling of a full beard threatened to blow up the internet on Tuesday.

“There’s obviously been so many challenges for everyone the last few years and not letting that get you down and remembering that every time you get to the golf course is a great opportunity.”

Nine Aussies are teeing it up in the final event of the Asian Tour’s extended season, the SMBC Singapore Open at the spectacular Serapong Course at Sentosa Golf Club while Jason Day and Brett Drewitt are the sole Australians playing The American Express tournament on the PGA TOUR.

Round 1 tee times AEDT

DP World Tour
Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship
Yas Links, Abu Dhabi, UAE
2.40pm*             Adam Scott, Bernd Wiesberger, Nicolai Hojgaard
2.50pm*             Min Woo Lee, Guido Migliozzi, Robert MacIntyre
3pm      Scott Hend, Dale Whitnell, Scott Jamieson
3.20pm Wade Ormsby, Shubhankar Sharma, Jack Singh Brar
3.40pm*             Ryan Fox, Callum Shinkwin, Søren Kjeldsen
6.45pm*             Maverick Antcliff, David Law, Joost Luiten
6.55pm*             Jason Scrivener, Paul Waring, Andrea Pavan

Defending champion: Tyrrell Hatton
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Top Aussie prediction: Min Woo Lee
TV guide: Live 8pm-12am Thursday, Friday; Live 7pm-12am Saturday; Live 6pm-12am Sunday on Fox Sports 503

Asian Tour
SMBC Singapore Open
Sentosa Golf Club, Serapong Course
11.10am             Ben Eccles, Naoki Sekito, Nicholas Fung
11.10am*           Travis Smyth, Charlie Wi, Panuphol Pittayarat
11.30am             Daniel Fox, Tirawat Kaewsiribandit, Taehoon Ok
3.20pm*             Zach Murray, Micah Lauren Shin, Karandeep Kochhar
3.30pm Matthew Griffin, Sanghee Lee, Pavit Tangkamolprasert
3.30pm*             Todd Sinnott, Trevor Simsby, Eunshin Park
3.40pm David Bransdon, Gunn Charoenkul, Bio Kim
3.40pm*             Ben Campbell, Natipong Srithong, Richard T. Lee
4pm      Andrew Evans, Yuto Katsuragawa, Prom Meesawat
4pm*    Jake Hibbinbottom, Danthai Boonma, Khalin Joshi

Defending champion: Matt Kuchar
Past Aussie winners: Frank Phillips (1961, 1965), Ted Ball (1964), Terry Gale (1978), Peter Fowler (1987), Paul Moloney (1993), Steven Conran (1995), Ken Druce (1999), Adam Scott (2005, 2006, 2010)
Top Aussie prediction: Travis Smyth
TV guide: Live 4pm-8pm Thursday, Friday; Live 2pm-6pm Saturday, Sunday on Fox Sports 503

PGA TOUR
The American Express
Pete Dye Stadium Course, La Quinta, California
Nicklaus Tournament Cse
3.50am*             Jason Day, Justin Rose
4.30am*             Brett Drewitt, David Lipsky
4.40am Danny Lee, John Huh    

Defending champion: Si Woo Kim
Past Aussie winners: Bruce Devlin (1970)
Top Aussie prediction: Jason Day
TV guide: Live 7am-11am Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday on Fox Sports 503

Korn Ferry Tour
The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic
The Abaco Club on Winding Bay, Great Abaco, Bahamas
Aussies in the field: Aaron Baddeley, Rhein Gibson, Curtis Luck

Defending champion: Jared Wolfe
Past Aussie winners: Nil
Top Aussie prediction: Rhein Gibson