Augusta National is where golf season begins, every year.

Sure, players tee it up at the Mercedes Championship in the first week of January, and every week since. But truly, the golf season does not start until the Masters. Consider all the stuff that happens before this week mere warmups — the preseason, if you will.

On Thursday, 94 players will compete for the green jacket and the honor of winning the year’s first — and most prestigious — major championship. But in reality, only two players have a legitimate chance of winning the Masters.

The odds-on favorite, of course, is Tiger Woods, winner of four previous Masters and 13 major championships. A victory by Tiger will fuel so much talk about a calendar-year grand slam that it will become the all-consuming golf story for at least the next two months.

Phil Mickelson is the only one who’s capable of putting that scenario to a swift end. While Lefty has been his mercurial self in the first eight tournaments he’s played — with a win and a playoff loss and also a missed cut — his game is the only one good enough to give Woods a serious challenge. With Tiger performing at his optimum level, no one else even has a chance.

But they’ll all show up anyway. And why not. As a professional golfer, getting into the Masters itself is quite a reward in itself.

Just ask Johnson Wagner.