By Aimee Edmondson
and Kelly Daniel
Staff Writers
Augusta Chronicle

Even during the Masters Tournament, traditions sometimes have to die. Golf fans craving a prime rib dinner at one of their traditional haunts, the Green Jacket Restaurant, will be disappointed this year. The longtime fixture across from the Augusta National Golf Club's main gate closed last June, which will be a surprise to most golf fans rolling into town this week.

``It's a sad thing,'' said Allen Peake, chief executive officer of Restaurant Management Services, the Macon-based company that owns the Green Jacket.

``It was such a difficult decision to close because it's been an important tradition in Augusta. We thought about it long and hard,'' Mr. Peake said.

The restaurant's business typically picked up six to seven times its normal level during Masters Week, Mr. Peake said. But one week does not a year make. Because of that, the company wanted to concentrate on its core business, Mr. Peake said.

Restaurant Management Services primarily operates Shoney's, Captain D's and Popeye's restaurants. It owns six Shoney's and four Captain D's restaurants in the Augusta market.

Now the only surviving Green Jacket Restaurant is in Macon, 124 miles away.

Missing dinner at the Green Jacket isn't the only change golf fans will notice in Augusta since last April.

For starters, golf fans are driving into a city four times larger than it was last year. With consolidation of Augusta and Richmond County, the Garden City's population shot from 44,707 to 202,434, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Augusta is now the No. 2 city in Georgia and No. 77 in the United States.

Driving downtown to the perennial favorite dining spot, Luigi's, tourists can't miss seeing that the 900 block of Broad Street is coming to life.

The Soul Bar opened in November on the south side of the block in the former space of Safety Loan Pawn Shop. Nacho Mama's, a Tex-Mex restaurant and bar just three doors down, was next.

Owners of the Soul Bar and Nacho Mama's take advantage of their location near Artists' Row, with paintings displayed on consignment in both spots.

Other changes include:

The Double Eagle Club, a members-only corporate hospitality club, is open this year at the former site of Norman's Electric Galaxy at 2603 Washington Road. In years past, it had been at the former Piggly Wiggly in Azalea Plaza across from the gates of the Augusta National. That spot was purchased by Whole Life Ministries.

The Augusta-Richmond County Museum is open. The long-awaited gallery will be open during Masters Week, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $2 for children, $3 for senior citizens and $4 for adults.

The Golf Hall of Fame isn't ready, but it will unveil a Masters Week treat for golf fans. Four-time Masters champion Arnold Palmer will unveil a 7-foot bronze sculpture of himself at Riverwalk Augusta at 9:30 a.m Tuesday. The city will declare Tuesday Arnold Palmer Day.

The multimillion-dollar Hall of Fame, including the sculptures, garden and interactive theater, is scheduled to open in 1998 on Reynolds Street in the blocks from 10th to 13th streets.

O'Shea's, a dance club with an Irish motif, has moved into the space of the former Post Office, which briefly became Garden City Music Hall after an ownership change earlier last year. The location is 2701 Washington Road in National Hills Shopping Center.

By tournament time next year, golf patrons and tourists will be able to visit Fort Discovery, the hands-on science museum now being built in the former Port Royal mall space on the riverwalk. The museum, delayed for more than 10 years because of funding problems, should open this fall, fund-raising director Geoffrey Wells has said.