It rarely happens in professional golf, but when it does, players consider it the ultimate show of friendship in an individual sport.

Imagine this: A golfer finishes his round, then returns to the course to follow a friend who is in contention for the title.

"I think it's unusual for anybody, because you're done and you're probably going to the next place," Brad Faxon said.

Faxon, Tom Lehman, Stuart Appleby and Billy Andrade are among the golfers who have done it.

In the 1994 U.S. Open, Leh- man tied for 33rd place, well behind good friend Loren Roberts, who tied for the tournament lead after 72 holes with Ernie Els and Colin Montgomerie.

The trio would play an 18-hole playoff the next day, and Lehman would walk the distance with the group, supporting Roberts.

"It's a great thing," Lehman said. "You know who your friends are. Most guys, your friends, will watch it on TV in the locker room. It's not a matter of them not caring. When they do go out and watch you finish, it's a nice thing."

In the playoff, Montgomerie shot 78 and was eliminated. Roberts and Els had 74s and went into a sudden-death playoff, which Els won on the second hole.

"That's true friendship," Rob- erts said. "I can't tell you how much that meant for him to walk with me all 18 holes on Monday.''

Lehman and Roberts' friendship has only grown since they met at qualifying school in 1983. Lehman, the 2006 U.S. Ryder Cup captain, asked Roberts to be an assistant captain in the matches, which he agreed to.

Andrade and Faxon, who grew up in Rhode Island, have been friends since their early teens.

They have rooted each other on to victory as spectators more than once.

Faxon was in the gallery when Andrade won the 1998 Canadian Open and the 2000 Invensys Classic at Las Vegas. Andrade lent his support when Faxon won the 2001 Sony Open.

"It shows what kind of mutual respect you have for someone who is your friend," Andrade said. "If I'm around and my friends are doing well, I'm going to support them."

"It means a lot to you," Faxon said. "It's not like you can sit there and spend a whole lot of time with the guy, but the support you get is great. Billy is an unbelievably good friend of mine. ... This year I haven't played that well; he's called me and talked to me a lot. He said, 'Let's play practice rounds,' and I feel like I did that for him when he didn't play his best a few years ago."

At the 2000 Shell Houston Open, Appleby returned to the course in the final round to cheer on fellow Australian Robert Allenby. Appleby went with Allenby through the final three holes of regulation and a sudden-death playoff, which Allenby won on the third hole.

"For Robert, I think that was a really important step," said Appleby, who became friends with Allenby when the two were in their late teens. "It was his first victory. I'd already won. I know how much he wanted it."

But it's not always friendships that bring a golfer back to the course, as Faxon discovered in the late 1980s at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

At that time, Cypress Point was still one of the courses in the rotation. The course's signature hole is the par-3 16th, a 231-yarder with a carry over the Pacific Ocean from tee to green, with a bailout area on the left.

The wind "was blowing 30 or 40 mph when I got to the 16th hole," Faxon said. "My amateur partner had literally walked off the golf course on the 14th hole and gone to Hawaii.

"Steve Elkington was on the tee. He'd already finished and I said, 'What are you doing?' He said, 'I just came out here to watch.' I said, 'You what?' He said, 'I played at Pebble (Beach, another course in the tournament rotation) and the flag is literally hitting on the green and I had to come out here and watch.' ... Nobody knocked it on the green before I hit. It was the scariest thing I've ever seen. That will bring a guy out."

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