Adam Scott, who won last year's Players Championship, said a competitive instinct can, at times, make friendships between elite golfers difficult.

Like a character from the movie "Tin Cup," Roesch, a 30-year-old from Wisconsin who had never played in a major pro event, was at two-under-par 68 and among the elite golfers for the day.

A field of elite golfers appeared in the 1940 Goodall Round-Robin.

If Tiger Woods can play through a slump and remain an elite golfer, he can survive one and still be a top closer.

The 2008 Ladies European Tour was a series of golf tournaments for elite female golfers from around the world which took place from January through December 2008.

It's the same concept of elite golfers playing for huge purses around the globe that has been proposed as the basis for a potential worldwide tour.

No matter how good you are, it is impossible to have a long career in golf without experiencing huge disappointments, and the elite golfers must learn how to overcome them.

The Players Championship is the only event, apart from the majors and the World Golf Championships, which attracts entries from almost all of the world's elite golfers.

In addition, elite golfers often earn several times as much from endorsements and golf-related business interests as they do from prize money.

From competing with elite golfers at Pebble Beach to scrambling at minor league tournaments like the Texarkana Open, Mike Small has played golf long enough to be smitten and stung by it.