Franklin Langham slammed a 15-foot putt 10 feet by the hole on No. 9. He recovered with a par-saving putt, and his father Jimmy let him hear it.

``Yeah! Way to go, Franklin,'' Jimmy said.

Langham shot 3-over-par 75, but that didn't seem to bother family members who gathered for the Masters. While his mother Mary, younger brother Jim and wife Ashley were on hand, so were hundreds of people from Thomson. It's a gallery that the family has begun to call ``Lang's Gang.''

``Luckily enough, a lot of Thomson people who have tickets have been getting them for years,'' Mary said. ``Their parents had 'em, and their grandparents. They've always supported the Masters through the years.''

Jim, an assistant pro at Reynolds Plantation in Greensboro, Ga., where Franklin's parents now live, recalls days when the two brothers had thoughts of Augusta.

``It's a dream come true,'' he said. ``There were many a day we'd spend at Belle Meade having putting matches saying, `This is for the Masters.'

``We always knew it was in him. We just didn't know if it was going to happen.''

The Langhams have always been well-known in Thomson because of their business along U.S. Highway 78, the main strip in town. The family owned Langham's Clothing Outlet but moved to Greensboro three years ago and subsequently closed their business.

The Langhams are retired now and spend some of their time watching their son on tour. They followed Franklin to eight events last year and have been to two this year. But nothing matches this week.

``The first day I was very, very nervous,'' Mary said. ``Today, I've relaxed a little more and enjoyed it ... I'm still pinching myself to believe that he's here.''

``This is like a golf tournament aside from anything else I've seen,'' Jim said. ``This is even bigger than the other three majors to me. It's like its own golf tournament.''

The Langhams view the Masters as such a special tournament that Jimmy, who occasionally caddies for Franklin and carried his son's bag in the Par-3 Contest, said he wouldn't think of looping this week.

``Well, you don't want to do that,'' he said. ``You want to go with the experienced guy that you've been with the whole year. You've got to go with what you're accustomed to.''

No matter how he plays in his first Masters, Franklin and Ashley have plenty to be happy about. The couple, who already have two sons - 3-year-old Parker and 1-year-old Carson - are expecting the birth of their third child Sept. 25.

``Another boy would be easy,'' she said. ``A little girl, we'd put bows in her hair. I can honestly say I don't care what it is.''