Glen Cove's Ryan Martino found a passion for golf after a cancer diagnosis, earns a top scholarship

Ryan Martino noticed a bump on his neck when he was in the eighth grade. Not thinking much of it, he didn’t say anything.

But after five months, he told his mother, prompting scans and a biopsy. Martino soon learned he had cancer.

“It was all just a big shock at first," he said, "and I really didn't know how to react to it.”

In 2022, from May to September, he underwent chemotherapy for Stage 2 Hodgkin's lymphoma, and he’s since been cancer-free. While receiving treatment, Martino reconnected with golf, saying it “saved him.” Around the time he began receiving treatment, Martino started working as a caddie at Nassau Country Club and later became a four-year golfer at Glen Cove High School.

Martino, who graduated from Glen Cove in June, will attend the University of Delaware this fall. He was awarded the Western Golf Association's Chick Evans Scholarship, which provides full tuition and housing for high-achieving caddies with limited financial means.

“It's one of the best things that's happened to me,” Martino said about the scholarship. “It's just taking the biggest weight off of my shoulders. I now can go to college stress-free, just worry about my grades.”

Martino said he likely would have attended a local community college without the scholarship. But after learning in February that he was selected, the scholarship made it possible for him to attend a university that otherwise wouldn't have been an option.

Brian Shell, the senior vice president of education for the WGA, said there were over 1,000 applicants nationally for the scholarship and 380 were awarded it. He added around 1,300 men and women currently enrolled in college have the scholarship, and that since the scholarship’s inception in 1930, over 13,000 caddies have had their full tuition and housing covered in college.

“His story is incredible,” Shell said. “For him to overcome and persevere through what he had to go through, be an A student and have an incredible caddie record? I think it shows his grit and determination.”

Around when Martino began receiving treatment, one of his friends started caddying at a country club and convinced him to do the same.

He began working at Nassau Country Club, first cleaning carts for a couple of months before his boss got him into caddying. He also began taking lessons and playing with his friends.

“It's what helped me escape,” Martino said, “and I think that's what's made me addicted to the game to this day.”

During chemotherapy, Martino received treatment every Friday, leaving him bedridden through Monday. All he looked forward to from Tuesday to Thursday was golf.

Martino finished chemotherapy shortly after starting high school that September. His final scan came that December, and two weeks later doctors removed his chemotherapy port, which was how he received his medications.

Martino has been cancer-free ever since, though returning to normal took time.

“Treatment ended, and it took a few months for the hair to come back,” Martino said. “And caddying ended that year in October. No more golf.”

Once he was fully healthy, Martino joined Glen Cove’s team as a freshman in the spring of 2023. He was a team captain his final three seasons. His handicap is down to 2.1.

He kept working as a caddie at Nassau Country Club, citing that he loved sharing his passion for golf with others. During his first summer caddying while cancer-free in 2023, Martino said he learned about the Chick Evans scholarship, and it was his “main thought” until he could apply heading into his senior year.

Martino applied last August. In January, he learned he had advanced to the interview process, which took place the following month in front of about 50 people in a news conference-style setting at Quaker Ridge Country Club in Scarsdale, New York.

Despite going through a cancer diagnosis and chemotherapy, Martino said that interview was one of the scariest days of his life. Five days later, he learned he was a Chick Evans Scholarship recipient, enabling him to major in business at Delaware.

The bump on Martino’s neck could have ended his life. Instead, it’s given him a future he couldn’t have imagined.