Associated Press
 Monday, April 2
AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Besides Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, perhaps no one has seen more shots into the 16th hole at Augusta than Franklin Langham.

The next time he's on the course will be different, though.

 Franklin Langham
Franklin Langham earned a spot in the field by finishing in the top 40 on the 2000 money list.
Langham will be standing on the tee box trying to figure out which club to pull, instead of standing on a ladder behind the green trying to figure out which number went next to which name.

The gangly teen-ager who posted scores on the 16th hole from 1985-87 while in high school gets to play in The Masters for the first time.

"It's a dream come true," said Langham, who was born in Augusta and grew up about 30 miles down the road in the tiny town of Thomson.

It will not be the first time he has played at Augusta National Golf Club.

Langham, who qualified for The Masters by finishing 26th on the PGA Tour money list last year with just over $1.6 million, has gone as a guest with family friends, and with University of Georgia alumni who were members at Augusta.

Once his Masters invitation arrived, he played three practice rounds in the past few months, "not only to play the course, but to get my feelings around there."

Augusta is just another golf course -- a spectacular one, at that -- every week of the year except for the second week in April.

Langham, 32, has never played when the greens were hauntingly fast, when the fairways were lined with ropes, when grandstands were placed around tees and greens.

And he has never played when scoreboards were posted on the Georgia pines behind each green to let the gallery know which group was next and how the players stood in relation to par.

Langham had the fortune of getting assigned to No. 16, the par-3 where championships are so often decided. From his position behind the green, Langham could watch players go for the par-5 15th in two, play the 16th and then tee off on No. 17.

"The best shot I ever saw was Seve putting it out of the bunker on 16," Langham said. "He almost made it. I went back and played it once and they've raised that lip on the bunker so you can't putt it out of there anymore."

The greatest day was in 1986.

Langham worked in the morning on that Sunday, so he was not at his post when Nicklaus fired his approach to 4 feet for birdie on his way to a sixth green jacket at age 46.

"I worked Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, so I was able to follow him the whole day," Langham said. "I saw him putt out on 18. It was the most memorable year I've had there."

That's about to change.

Langham is not the first Augusta native to play in The Masters. Larry Mize played in his first Masters in 1984, and won three years later with a 140-foot chip for birdie on the second playoff hole to beat Greg Norman.

Mize also worked the scoreboard as a teen-ager until his family moved away, and he plans to play a practice round with Langham on Tuesday to tell him what to expect.

"It's a blast," Mize said. "I will never forget it. I think I was more nervous Tuesday on the first tee than Thursday. That's how excited I was. I was shaking teeing up the ball."

Langham's first invitation to Augusta -- as a player, not a sign boy -- comes at a good time in his career. He is coming off a year in which he qualified for his first Tour Championship and played in his first major, tying for seventh in the PGA.

Still, he anticipates getting goose bumps, especially when he stands on the 16th tee in the first round and sees his name on that scoreboard behind the green.

"I'll be pumped," he said. "That's going to be pretty neat."




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