Practice rounds for the Masters Tournament begin Monday at Augusta National Golf Club. The world’s best golfers are in town, along with thousands of spectators, and it’s been a banner year for housing rentals in the tournament’s host city.

Earlier this year, the Masters Housing Bureau was seeing double the interest in private-home rentals from a year ago after a weak economy drove down demand for several years.

Corporate Quarters serves mostly companies looking for a home or multiple homes to rent for the Masters. Owner and President Diane Starr said they’re very close to booking as many homes as their best year ever.

“[Renters] are coming back in bigger numbers. I’m almost concerned that Augusta just doesn’t have enough nice, big homes,” Starr said. That’s what everybody’s looking for – five- and six-bedroom homes. We’re building them as fast as we can, but they are in big demand.”

Starr said the boom is due to a better economy and to a certain top-ranked golfer entering the tournament having just won the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

“Tiger [Woods is] doing well. People are always going to want to see if he’s going to be able to pull it and get back to his old self, and I do think that coming into this tournament with a win is huge,” Starr said. “It does make the excitement a little bit bigger.”

The Masters injects as much as $150 million into Augusta’s economy each year.

Starr said she typically has people call even after the tournament starts looking for a house to rent. And she has homeowners who drop off their keys just in case that happens.

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