There might not be a pro golfer anywhere with an attitude quite like Tom Johnson's. For that matter, there are not many athletes in any sport who have gone through as much as Johnson has and have still been able to continue to compete.

When you have survived a kidney transplant, as Johnson has, it changes your attitude about trying to make a 10-foot birdie putt. When you have undergone 17 operations for skin cancer in the last five years, as Johnson has, you don't fret about making a bogey as much as others might. When doctors say you should consider still more surgery, this time work that would cut open your face from your ear to your throat, which is the issue Johnson is dealing with today, you are better able to put golf in its proper perspective.

"When I can get out and play now, I just enjoy it,'' the 44-year-old North Kingstown native said. "My attitude is so different. I really think it's helped me play better.''

That might be the most amazing part of Tom Johnson's story.

Even as he has battled life-threatening issues for more than a decade, he not only has kept working, he has been successful. He is playing some of the best golf of his life.

"I've been through so much in the last year, not just me but my whole family,'' Johnson said. "When I'm on the course now, nothing bothers me. Whatever happens, I just laugh. ... I'm happy when I can play.''

The record books will show that Jim Renner, the Plainville, Mass., resident who is the hottest player on the New England circuit this summer, won the 2008 Amica Insurance Rhode Island Open recently at Pawtucket Country Club.

"I played with him the last day. He's the real deal,'' Johnson said of Renner, who now has won four tournaments this summer.

"He's tour-ready,'' Johnson added. "And like I told his father, what makes it better is that he's even better as a person. He's a great kid.''

As well as Renner played in winning the tournament at 8-under 199, many of those who were at the event came away talking even more about the guy who tied for fourth. That is Johnson, who began with a career-best 63 and followed with rounds of 71 and 69.

Johnson long has been one of the most popular players on the New England circuit. Now, he has become a marvel merely for continuing to play, never mind contending for titles.

About 11 years ago, Johnson was diagnosed with kidney disease. With the help of the Rhode Island Renal Center, he continued both playing and working at area golf shops. He arranged his schedule around dialysis treatments. He was placed on a list for kidney transplant. Then, as he describes it, "I got lucky.'' The average wait for a transplant is about three years. Just over one year into his wait, Johnson received a call to rush to the hospital. An accident victim had died and his organs were donated. Johnson received the kidney.

"Knock on wood, everything's great with the kidney. It's almost like it's my own kidney,' Johnson said. "I haven't had any problems at all.''

There have been side effects, though. One is weight gain, which has happed to Johnson because of the medicines he takes. A much more serious problem has been skin cancer.

"They told me from the time I had the transplant that it was something I had to be concerned about,'' Johnson said. "I do try and stay out of the sun as much as possible. I never practice now. I play maybe one day a week.'' When he does play, he wears big hats and puts on -- as he calls it -- "nuclear-powered'' sunscreen.

Johnson was working at the Blissful Meadows club in Uxbridge, Mass. He had to give up that job, in part, because going outside and giving lessons was too much. He recently moved to Plainville, Mass., and works at Dick's Sporting Goods in Natick, Mass. He speaks calmly and without emotion when he discusses what he has been through.

In the last five years, he has had 17 surgeries for skin cancer.

"There aren't many places on my body that haven't had surgery,'' he said. He is having major concerns now with his left ear, part of which has been removed. He needs more work on that ear. He praises doctors at Rhode Island Hospital who have been wonderful in treating him and keeping him going.

His treatment is ongoing. Doctors have told him they are concerned about the possibility of cancer in his face, surgery he said, that would "mean they'd have to cut me from my ear to my throat.''

It is an issue he will deal with soon. For the time being, though, Johnson is going to delay any more work. He plans to go to Maine for a tournament this week, and he will take his number-one fan with him. His mother, Carolyn, has been going through some tough times herself. She has been helping care for her grandchildren. Johnson's sister, Susan Hopkins, is a widow with four children.

"My mother is the greatest,'' Johnson said. "She doesn't like to come and see me play because she's afraid she will jinx me. But I'm making her come with me to give her a little vacation. She deserves it. She's been through a lot in the last year.''

Johnson has, too. That's why he plans to continue playing as long as he can, although even he wonders at how he is playing.

"I've made 19 birdies and an eagle in my last four competitive rounds,'' he said. He plans to continue as long as he can.

"I'm at the point now where I really can't be out in the sun a lot,'' he said. "But I'm a golfer, what can I do?''