Roger Warren got his start in golf while living in the Chicago area. He went on to big things in the game, and now he’s back.

Warren will captain the U.S. in the Junior Ryder Cup competition, which begins at 5 p.m. on Sunday with opening ceremonies at Olympia Fields Country Club. After two days of matches on Olympia’s South course the 12-player teams from the U.S. and Europe will shift to Medinah Country Club for a 2 p.m. Friendship match over 10 holes of the No. 3 course that will host the full-blown Ryder Cup competition beginning on Friday.

Warren became captain of the U.S. team for what the PGA of America bills as “an international showcase of golf’s next generation,’’ because he is the PGA president twice removed. It’s an honor that is bestowed on past leaders of the 27,000-member organization.

For Warren it’s also a homecoming. He was a high school teacher as well as a basketball and golf coach at Dundee Crown High School and the Illinois Math & Science Academy before entering the golf business at Village Links of Glen Ellyn in 1986. He’s come a long, long way since then.

After leaving The Links in 1991 Warren directed the operation at Seven Bridges in Woodridge from 1991-2003 and then headed for the famed Kiawah Island Resort near Charleston, S.C. He became the president there in 2005 and was concurrently the president of the PGA of America through 2006 and the PGA’s honorary president in 2008.

With August’s PGA Championship played at Kiawah Warren was additionally general chairman of that event.

“I’ve had my hands full,’’ admitted Warren, “but I couldn’t be more excited about the Junior Ryder Cup. I’m looking forward to it because of my background in high school coaching and because of the quality of the junior golfers on the team.’’

The Junior Ryder Cup will be played for the eighth time on Olympia Fields’ South course. The series is event at 3-3-1. Past participants include Rory McIlroy and Nicolas Colsaerts, both members of the current European Ryder Cup squad. Other golf notables who have played in the event include Sergio Garcia, Suzann Pettersen, and Matteo Manassero for Europe and Hunter Mahan, Luke Guthrie, Bud Cauley and Jordan Spieth for the U.S.

Warren’s U.S. squad is led by Robbie Shelton, of Wilmer, AL. Shelton, 16, won both the Junior PGA Championship at Sycamore Hills in Ft. Wayne, Ind., and the Junior Players Championship at Florida’s TPC Sawgrass this summer.

Each team has 12 players, six boys and six girls. The other boys include two hotshot Californians. Cameron Champ was runner-up in the Junior PGA and Beau Hossler, at 17, made the cut at the U.S. Open. Rounding out the boys’ contingent are Gavin Hall, of Pittsford, N.Y.; Jim Liu, of Smithtown, N.Y.; and Scottie Scheffler, of Dallas.

The U.S. girls are headed by Samantha Wagner, of Windemere, FL., and Alison Lee, of Valencia, Calif. Wagner was runner-up in the Junior PGA and Lee was the leading point-getter in the Junior Ryder Cup standings.

Five members of the U.S. team earned automatic spots off the post lists. The other seven are Warren’s captain’s picks. Only 2013 high school graduates, or younger, were eligible.

Other girls on the U.S. squad are Cathy Cathrea, of Livermore, Calif.; Karen Chung, Livingstone, N.J.; Casey Danielson, Osceola, Wis.; and Esther Lee, Los Alamitos, Calif.

“Their experience and quality of play is tremendous,’’ said Warren. “They are all great young players. I know they will perform well. This event is very competitive, and it gives these kids a taste o what could happen if they take up a career in golf.’’

There’ll be six foursome matches on Monday morning, three boys and three girls, and six mixed ball matches in the afternoon. Twelve singles matches, involving all the players on both sides, are on tap for Tuesday.

FRENCH LICK, Ind. – For 11 years Jane Blalock has tried to get a senior tour going for the veterans or retirees on the Ladies PGA Tour. Now she’s apparently done it.

Blalock, the LPGA’s rookie-of-the-year in 1970 and a 27-time winner on the circuit, has made the LPGA Legends Tour her special project. She’s the chief executive officer of the circuit, which only consisted of a few events – some of them just one-day affairs – until recently. Those events raised over $8 million for charity, but pale in comparison to what’s coming in 2013.

Working with Dave Harner, director of golf operations at French Lick Resort, Blalock finally got the event that will help the Legends Tour go big-time. Harner and Blalock just announced that a 54-hole tournament will top off a week-long program at the southern Indiana facility that has the Pete Dye Course, the Donald Ross Course and the Valley Links nine-holer – dedicated to early course designer Tom Bendelow –on the property.

A fourth 18-holer, Sultan’s Run, supplements the resort’s golf options in Jasper, a 20-minute drive from French Lick.

The Dye Course, the well-received most recent creation of the prolific long-time Indiana resident architect, will be the site for the Legends biggest-ever event from Sept. 22-29, 2013. The 54-hole competition will follow the Alice Dye Women’s Invitational, an amateur event honoring Dye’s wife and sometimes co-course designer. Organizers promised there would be television coverage, though the particulars weren’t ready to be announced.

In between the amateur and Legends competitions will be a clinic, given by the former and current LPGA stars, and a pro-am. A Legends Hall of Fame will also be established at the resort.

“This is the largest event we’ve ever had, in every respect,’’ said Blalock. “This year we had eight events, and next year we’ll have at least 10. We’re expanding, and we’re going to have an event here every year as a celebration of women in golf.’’

Joining Blalock in making the announcement in the clubhouse at the Dye Course were LPGA Hall of Famer Pat Bradley and long-time competitors Rosie Jones and Val Skinner. All spoke at the announcement festivities and participated in a golf outing afterwards.

Though many of the details weren’t announced, the event was triggered by a $300,000 donation to the American Heart Assn., which will be the tourney’s charitable beneficiary. In addition to the four women at the announcement, stars like Nancy Lopez, Patty Sheehan, Juli Inkster, Lori Kane, Liselotte Neumann, Nancy Scranton and Beth Daniel are expected to be involved. Blalock said between 30-60 players will compete.

“We’re expanding, and we’ll try to have all those great women – Kathy Whitworth, Mickey Wright, Louise Suggs — come to the event with us,’’ said Blalock.

She said the Legends Tour is for women “45 years young.’’ It’s 50 for the men’s ChampionsTour.

“This is the only time you’ll find our players admit their ages – even Jan Stephenson,’’ said Blalock. “And our super senior, Joanne Carner, can still beat all of us.’’

Indeed this is a big development for all of golf. The men’s Champions Tour was an immediate success once Arnold Palmer became involved in the 1980s. Now the women hope to follow suit, and the French Lick event could provide the impetus.

“French Lick has a proud history in women’s golf,’’ said Harner. “We had an open tournament here in 1957, which was won by Louise Suggs. The LPGA Championship was held here in 1959, with Betsy Rawls beating Patty Berg by one shot, and in 1960 the great Mickey Wright won her second LPGA Championship here.’’

Harner has been with French Lick through the hard times. He’s been with the resort for 34 years, and its comeback in the last six years has been astonishing. The town’s two big hotels, French Lick and West Baden, were hot spots in their early years and then required complete renovations after a casino was brought in.

The previous LPGA tourneys were all played at the Donald Ross Course, which was renovated. Dye built his course from scratch, and it has already hosted the Professional Players National Championship. Both courses were used last year when the Big Ten men’s and women’s championships were staged at French Lick. Those events will return in 2013 and 2014. The Legends event promises to be French Lick’s biggest yet.

“This is a fantastic, beautiful place,’’ said Skinner. “It’s nice to have a place where we can chase our dreams – even if those dreams have changed a bit.’’

“Our tour is lucky and honored to play at this amazing place,’’ said Jones. “We’re super excited.’’

“I’m ready!’’ said Bradley. “We have to wait a year? I’m ready now.’’

The upcoming Ryder Cup is much more than a three-day golf competition between the top touring professionals from the United States and Europe. It also encompasses a load of junior events that the PGA of America hopes will help grow the sport. Medinah Country Club will host some – but not all – of them.

Most unusual is the PGA Junior Golf League’s national championship. It’s a fledgling program patterned after Little League baseball and football’s Punt, Pass & Kick program, and it’s open to both boys and girls.

Golf’s version didn’t start until last year, and then in only four cities. It affiliated with the PGA of America in January.

Chicago came into the program for youngsters between the ages of 9-13 this year at just Pine Meadow, in Mundelein, and Cog Hill, in Lemont. The League’s national championship will start at Medinah on Sept. 14 with a skills’ competition and dinner. The following two days will feature team matches on Cog Hill’s No. 2 course followed by an awards ceremony.

“Last year there were 16 teams in the nation. This year there were 127,’’ said Dennis Johnson, head professional at Pine Meadow and captain of the Chicago team in the finals. “I thought it was stupid at first, but it’s an incredible program.’’

The format consists of a series of nine-hole two-player scramble matches with players getting jerseys (with numbers). It was only Pine Meadow vs. Cog Hill this year, and the Jemsek Golf facilities played four matches before Johnson picked an “all-league’’ team to participate in the national finals.

Next year he hopes to have 32 teams, with other Chicago clubs joining in.

“I will turn away no kid, but they can’t be raw beginners and they have to have clubs,’’ said Johnson. Some instruction and golf balls as well as the jerseys are part of the signup fee, which Johnson projects to be in the $150-200 range.

The program will get major exposure during and after the national championship. In addition to bringing teams from Boca Raton, FL.; Atlanta, Houston, San Francisco and Northern New Jersey to Medinah for the start of the national finals, Johnson’s Chicago team will return on the Wednesday of Ryder Cup week (SEPT 26) for an up-close look at the big global event. Their visit will be filmed for future promotional efforts.

Other members of the Illinois Section of the PGA, meanwhile, spent the summer conducting the Ryder Cup Youth Skills Challenge that will culminate with finals at Medinah on Sept. 22, three days before the pros arrive.

There were 57 local competitions, all free to youngsters who competed in age groups ranging from 6-8 to 15-17, and they drew over 3,000 participants. About 500 top finishers in those events qualified for regionals that were held at Oak Brook, Pine Meadow, Cog Hill and Cantigny, in Wheaton.

“As anticipated, it has been an overwhelming success,’’ said Michael Miller, IPGA executive director. “The event has truly allowed the community to embrace the enthusiasm and excitement of having the Ryder Cup right here in our backyard.’’

Those in the finals will receive free admission to the opening day of Ryder Cup week at Medinah.

Biggest of the junior adjuncts to the Ryder Cup, however, is the Junior Ryder Cup – a most competitive team event pitting the very best 17-and-under players from the U.S. and Europe. They’ll compete at Olympia Fields on Sept. 24-25 after three days of practice and opening ceremonies and then hold a more informal Friendship Bowl nine-hole match on Sept. 26 at Medinah in the final days before the main matches tee off.

Roger Warren is the captain of the U.S. squad. A teacher and coach at Dundee Crown High School and the Illinois Math & Science Academy, he got started in the business side of golf at Village Links of Glen Ellyn in 1986. He left the Links in 1991 to direct the operation at Seven Bridges, in Woodridge, through 2003. He went on to become national president of the PGA in 2005 and is now president of the Kiawah Resort in South Carolina, the site of this year’s PGA Championship.

“I couldn’t be more excited about the Junior Ryder Cup,’’ said Warren. “I’m looking forward to it because of my background in high school coaching and because of the quality of the junior golfers who are on the team. They’ll all be great players and good people.’’

Warren’s team of six boys and six girls features Robby Shelton of Wilmer, AL., who won the Junior PGA boys title in Ft. Wayne, Ind., last month, and Beau Hossler, of Mission Viejo, CA., who qualified for the last two U.S. Opens. Hossler, 17, was a sensation at this year’s Open at San Francisco’s Olympic Club when he tied for 29th and became the youngest player to survive the tourney’s 36-hole cut since World War II.

The girls portion of the team is led by Alison Lee, of Valencia, CA., who led the points list off a nationwide series of tournaments to determine the automatic qualifiers for the team.

The Junior Ryder Cup has been contested seven times, the U.S. winning in 1997, 2008 and 2010 and Europe winning in 1999, 2002 and 2004. The 2006 competition, in Wales, was halved, so the series is all even at 3-3-1 going into the Olympia Fields event.