Marc St. Martin has received more than his share of bad breaks in the last three years, which is why the two telephone calls he received recently from friends back home in Rhode Island meant so much to him.

The 57-year-old St. Martin, one of the great golfers in Rhode Island history, has undergone two sets of radiation treatments for cancer in the past three years. And he has been told he has prostate cancer and will need surgery for that, as well.

“I’ve had a tough 2 ½ years, but I’m feeling OK,” St. Martin said from Fort Myers, Fla., where he has lived for the past 18 years.

The telephone calls certainly helped him feel better.

“I got two calls within a week,” he related. “The first one was from Kirkbrae (where he was a longtime member). They told me they were giving me a (lifetime) membership. That meant a lot to me.

“Then,” he continued, “less than a week later, Joe (Sprague, the former R.I. Golf Association director and current member of the RIGA Hall of Fame committee) called and said he wanted to be the first to tell me that I had been elected to the Hall of Fame. You talk about making me feel better! Those calls were so good. I’m looking forward so much to coming back for the ceremonies.”

St. Martin is one of four elected to the RIGA Hall. PGA Tour pro Brett Quigley will be inducted with him, becoming the third member of his family –– joining his father, Paul, and uncle, Dana –– to be enshrined.

Two of the early greats in the game will be honored posthumously. T. Suffern “Tommy” Tailer Jr., who dominated play in the state in the 1930s, and Barbara Davis, a five-time R.I. Women’s Golf Association, champion also will be enshrined.

Brad Boss, a longtime RIGA and United States Golf Association official and booster, will receive the association’s Distinguished Service Award at the awards dinner Nov. 30 at Kirkbrae.

St. Martin is best known as the last amateur to win the State Open, doing that in 1990. He also won the State Amateur three times, in 1976, 1984 and 1988. One of the most precise and focused players ever to compete in the state, he took the Caddy Championship in 1968, won the Four-Ball with Richard Grimes in 1976, captured the Providence Journal Tournament of Champions in 1993 and was the RIGA Player of the Year in 1990.

He did it all despite missing almost six years in his late 20s and early 30s. He played professionally for three years, then had to wait the required two years to regain his amateur status. He moved to Florida in 1991, where he has continued to win awards, including the South Florida Player of the Year.

Brett Quigley has won more than $10 million in 13 years on the PGA Tour. He developed his game in Rhode Island, most notably at Rhode Island Country Club.

The Barrington High grad, who was a two-time academic All-American at the University of South Carolina, won the 1984 RIGA Junior Amateur and the 1990 State Amateur. He combined with his father, Paul, to capture the Four-Ball in 1988 and 1990. He was the 1988 RIGA Player of the Year.

He is one of only two Rhode Islanders, with Ronnie Quinn, to win the Northeast Amateur (1988). Quigley also won the U.S. Junior Championship in 1987.

Tailer was one of the game’s first prodigies. The son of New York businessman T.S. Tailer Sr., one of the early leaders at Newport Country Club, he won the RIGA Junior Amateur in both 1927 and 1929 and was upset for that title in 1928 by Joe Pezzullo. Tailer won the State Amateur in 1930, ’31 and ’32 and captured the State Open in both 1932 and ’35.

A resident of New York who spent his summers in Newport, Tailer also won numerous championships in New York. In 1932, he not only won the Rhode Island title, but also won the Metropolitan Golf Association title in New York and reached the quarterfinals of the U.S. Amateur.

He qualified for match play in the U.S. Amateur at 16, making him the youngest player ever to accomplish the feat to that point. His father built a nine-hole course, Ocean Links, adjacent to Newport Country Club, to give his son a place of his own to play. The course, which exited from 1921-31, has been called the finest nine-hole course ever built in the United States. Tailer twice played in The Masters. In 1938, he became the first amateur ever to break 70 in the event.

Davis won the R.I. Women’s Golf Association title five times, including three in a row beginning in 1934. She captured the Wannamoisett women’s championship 13 years in a row and also won the RIGA Mixed Championship with Stan Koslowski in 1946. She also was a three-time champion of the Endicott Cup, which brings together the top players in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Boss is a former RIGA president who also served for many years as an official for both the Rhode Island and United States Golf Association. His family’s company, A.T. Cross, sponsored the State Open for several years. Boss also has served as an official at The Masters at Augusta National, where he is a member. He also has been a longtime member of the committee for the USGA Senior Championship.

Boss, a University of Rhode Island grad and longtime booster of that school’s athletic programs, helped bring about a hockey arena at that school, to the point where the arena is named in his honor.

_pkenyon@projo.com / 401-277-7340