By Tom Corwin
Staff Writer
Augusta Chronicle

AUGUSTA, Ga. - Like Dorothy at the gates of the Emerald City in The Wizard of Oz, pilgrims of golf will stand before the green-shrouded gates of Augusta National Golf Club this week.

And like Dorothy, they will be ushered wide-eyed into a dazzling and mysterious world of sweet-blooming dogwoods and brilliant flowering azaleas, where legends prowl the greens and every blade of grass is steeped in the lore of the game.

The Masters is here again.

Like an exotic flower, Augusta National opens once a year to golfers and golf lovers. The faithful are called back year after year, proudly bearing the badges of exclusivity, hoping for the same magic and golf perfection as the golfers themselves.

The time to bloom is here.

Mother Nature seems to have conspired in making the Masters and Augusta what visitors expect each year. When warm weather in February threatened to throw the city's trademark azaleas off schedule and bloom early, bitter cold winds swept in over the last few weeks and kept the flowers from opening. Until now, and just in time.

``The golf gods are with us,'' said Clyde Lester of the University of Georgia Extension Service for Augusta-Richmond County.

But they are fickle gods, and weather may yet turn on the Garden City and the Masters.

``Masters weather is predictable,'' Dan Jenkins of Sports Illustrated wrote in 1964. ``In the four days of the tournament proper it will rain, get cold, turn hot and become windy.''

No matter. Like a factory suddenly roaring to life, the prestige of the Masters will still bring more than 200,000 tourists and their dollars. Five air traffic controllers will be brought in to man the tower at Daniel Field as the sleepy airport is bombarded by as many as 40 takeoffs and landings each hour, airport Manager Bob Hayes said.

People likely started booking hotels the day after last year's tournament. This one week means as much money as any summer month, said David Jones, general manager of Sheraton Augusta Hotel.

``Having Masters Week is like having 13 months'' for the hotel business, he said. Last year, that one week generated $106 million for the area.

Local companies and giant corporations such as Cadillac fly in their best clients and salespeople to bask in the rich glow of Masters Week, a privilege for which they are willing to pay.

Like the Super Bowl or the Final Four, the Masters is ``the premier golf event in the world,'' said Darryl Leech, general manager of the Radisson Riverfront Hotel Augusta. But unlike those other events, the Masters returns to the same site every year, claiming Augusta as its home.

Even ordinary homes in ordinary neighborhoods rent like New York penthouses. A five-bedroom home goes for around $4,000 this week.

Many locals rent out their houses and use the money to finance a vacation. A federal tax loophole - slipped into the tax code to benefit Augusta - allows them to rent their homes for up to two weeks without having to declare the income. The Internal Revenue Service has been trying to close that loophole before folks in Atlanta can take advantage of it during this year's Olympics.

The visitors swell and color the streets like a black-and-white movie bursting into technicolor. Street vendors and portable bars appear along Washington Road, hawking the deep but unauthorized green of Masters paraphernalia.

Diners along Washington Road will stand in the parking lot for three hours waiting to eat. They call restaurants such as T-Bones months ahead, not for reservations but just to let the restaurant know they will be coming by again, said T-Bones managing partner Bo Handy.

People don't schedule surgeries, and the hospitals are quiet as doctors gratefully take a break to entertain out-of-town friends.

In a world where sports teams pick up and move across the country, where players switch teams at the drop of a dime and disgruntled fans pelt players and coaches with snowballs, Augusta National and its fans are frozen in an idyllic time. The tournament first sold out in 1967 and the patron's list was closed in 1972 at an estimated 40,000 badges. The waiting list closed in 1978. Even practice round tickets were allotted by mail months ago.

Once a year, the badge-holders are led in to witness the making of history and relive the greatest moments of golf - perhaps of their lives.

``It's almost a religious experience,'' said Dr. Talmadge ``Joe'' Bowden Jr. of Augusta, who for the last 33 years has been playing host to about 20 friends who come in for the tournament. ``It's a celebration of the game of golf in its highest expression.''

Unlike other golf tournaments, the Masters is always here, it is always this time of year when the world itself is undergoing the magic transformation into green, the green of a Masters jacket. There is a familiar rhythm to the tournament, the arrivals, the way that flowers and trees seem to open up for the city's guests.

The time to bloom is here.