RANCHO MIRAGE — Posing for a picture with his playing partners, Kyle Lograsso was perched on a 12-inch block on the edge of the tee box at the second hole of the Dinah Shore Tournament Course.

Kyle needed a boost in order to get his smiling face in the frame. He's 6 years old.

Blessed with talent and having survived two life-threatening illnesses — one of which cost him an eye — his story has inspired millions.

The golfer received the loudest cheers in his group Wednesday when he teed off on the first hole in the Kraft Nabisco Championship Celebrity Pro-Am.

“I was nervous, so nervous. I was shivering,” said Kyle, who was specially invited to participate in the event and the U.S. Women's Open in July.

Kyle developed a seamless swing when he was 2, picking up the game over the airwaves after he was inexplicably transfixed by the Golf Channel.

Now he is striking 150-yard tee shots down the middle of the fairway.

His father, Jeff Lograsso, is always by his side on the golf course. He is Kyle's designated caddie, and one of his sisters, Kaley, pitched in for the first time Wednesday.

Kyle is the one who decides when to go to the driving range. His parents, Jeff and Regina, know he has talent, but they won't consider getting him a coach until he's a teenager.

“We almost lost him twice, so any day that we get to spend with him is better than forcing him to play golf and get a coach,” Jeff Lograsso said.

Those days are especially precious since Jeff Lograsso is a gunnery sergeant in the Marine Corps. When he was recently deployed to Iraq, it was too painful for Kyle to golf without his caddie. Once his father returned in February, their rounds restarted.

Jeff Lograsso said he is scheduled for another deployment in early 2010.

Cursed with a lousy game, the Marine is happy to stay behind the bag.

“I hit a house once,” Jeff Lograsso said, “and he just walked away from me and said I was unbelievable.”

For many, Kyle's story defies explanation. Tournament volunteers with graying hair bent over to get his autograph during his round Wednesday, and he constantly receives e-mails from across the globe on his Web site.

That he has survived to showcase his swing brings people to tears.

It all began when a glare appeared in his left eye before he turned 2. Then a white speck materialized and started to grow. His mother was curious. She placed objects over his eye, but he didn't react.

Scheduled for his 2-year-old checkup, Kyle went to the pediatrician, who suggested he come back the following day to see a visiting ophthalmologist. The eye doctor said he suspected Kyle was suffering from retinoblastoma, a rare form of childhood eye cancer.

Only 250 cases of the disease are diagnosed every year in the United States.

The Lograssos flew to Hawaii from Japan, where Kyle's father was stationed with the Marines. After extensive tests, doctors confirmed Kyle had tumors in both eyes, and the family was referred to Dr. Carol Shields, a leading specialist in Philadelphia. Kyle had several months to live, Shields informed the family, unless his left eye was removed.

The surgery was successful, and Kyle now has a prosthetic eye.

Two months after the surgery, Kyle was back in the hospital. Feverish and struggling to breathe, his temperature had soared to 105 degrees. His blood pressure had plummeted to 21 over 13. His heart was racing at 220 beats per minute.

“He was literally cooking from the insides,” Jeff Lograsso said.

The illness was unrelated to his cancer. An infection called sepsis had poisoned his bloodstream through an incision made during his chemotherapy treatments.

After spending four days in the intensive care unit and receiving aggressive antibiotic treatment for a week, Kyle felt well enough to swing a plastic club in his room.

Now free of the cancer that plagued him, Kyle and his story have been broadcast to millions. He has appeared on TV shows such as “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” on HBO and the “CBS Evening News.”

“For him to be able to inspire so many is what's so wonderful,” Jeff Lograsso said.