FRENCH LICK, Ind. — Braden Tamosaitis got to roll some putts on the Pete Dye Course on Saturday and also meet many of the players competing in the second round of the LPGA Legends Championship.

Braden, age 9, enjoyed the experience thoroughly and the players he touched most certainly did, as well.

“He’s a special little kid,’’ summed up Dave Harner, director of golf at French Lick.

Braden was born with spina bifida, hydrocephalus and Arnold Chiari II malformation. He underwent surgery the day after he was born and again on the second day of his life. Altogether he’s had 17 surgeries, but they haven’t dimmed his spirit for life. He was delighted to report that a couple of putts on the practice green even found the hole.

“He’s a very happy kid, and a better interview than I am,’’ said his father, Kevin, who drove his family over two hours (from Camby, Ind., near Indianapolis) on Friday night so that they could participate in Saturday’s Walk for Riley while the Legends tournament was in progress.

Riley Children’s Hospital at IU Health is the new charity partner with the Legends Championship. The hospital will received a check for $100,000 following Sunday’s final round to continue its work with families dealing with severe health problems.

“French Lick really stepped up,’’ said Kevin Tamosaitis. “We’ve been welcomed with open arms and treated like VIPs.’’

Harner said Riley Children’s Hospital’s involvement developed because `we wanted something everyone in Indiana could identify with and be a part of.’’ Harner knew of Braden and the Riley programs because his own son was involved in the Riley Dance Marathon at Indiana University.

“Riley affects all 92 counties in the state of Indiana plus Kentucky, Illinois and Ohio,’’ said Joe Vezzoso, vice president of hotel operations for French Lick Resort. “This is a win-win for everyone.’’

The Tamosaitis family isn’t new to the special events tied into Riley Hospital. Braden was named Indiana’s 2013 Children’s Miracle Network Champion, and that enabled him to represent the state in a celebratory event in Orlando, Fla., and then take a flight to Washington D.C. where – among other things — he met with President Obama.

Braden’s battle with spina bifida, though, continues. He watched Saturday’s event from a wheelchair near the No. 8 tee and more surgeries at Riley wouldn’t be unexpected.

“He looks forward to them,’’ said his father, “because he gets room service and his friends are there, both patients and doctors. He’s very comfortable there. It’s not like a home-away-from-home; it’s like our other home.’’

Five families from Riley participated in Saturday’s Walk. They were scattered around the course, and those participating in the Walk got to interact the Riley families. That made the Walk all the more special for over 75 youngsters who came from all parts of the area.

“The First Tee of Louisville brought 35 kids,’’ said Harner. “We had them from three years old through high school.’’

Walk participants and the Riley families participated together in an introductory event on the Dye Course putting green, with two of the LPGA competitors – Lorie Kane and Ann-Marie Palli – offered instruction. Then the families went to checkpoints along the course and the Walk for Riley participants took off on a tour of the spectacular, hilly course. They received stickers at each checkpoint and those who covered the full 18 holes received a small gift upon completion of the hike.

Ashtyn Brown’s final swing at the LPGA Legends Championship may not have produced the desired result, but there’s no doubt she was the star of the show.

As the ambassador for Riley Children’s Hospital at IU Health, Ashtyn was the honorary starter for the 54-hole tournament on Friday. She hooked her tee shot, just a minor distraction in a saga that began in March when the hospital’s partnership with the tournament was announced.

The end result, said French Lick director of golf Dave Harner, was a $100,000 donation to the hospital through tournament activities.

Along the way Ashtyn gave several speeches describing her brutal battle with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. She also went on a media tour with Legends star Rosie Jones and played in Jones’ tournament in Roswell, Ga.

Once the Legends arrived at French Lick Ashtyn was a focal point at Thursday’s pro-am activities as well as the dinner in which she gave one more touching speech to a big gathering in the rotunda of the West Baden Springs Hotel at French Lick Resort.

In the pro-am she was paired with Joanne Carner, the LPGA Hall of Famer, and was the cart partner of Steve Ferguson, chairman of the board of Cook Group. There’s about a 50-year difference in age between Carner and Ashtyn, and their round together didn’t quite last 18 holes because of time constraints involving the Hall of Fame dinner.

“It was just incredible just to be out there with those ladies, especially Joanne,’’ said Ashtyn. “She has so much experience in golf and is a great lady as well. It’s not surprising or shocking how great these people on the Legends Tour are, and my being a golfer myself, you strive to be like them.’’

The Legends event wasn’t the first for Ashtyn in her role with the hospital. She also have speeches in golf-related settings in Indianapolis and at the PGA’s Children’s Miracle Network event in Orlando, Fla.

In all her speeches she related how she was diagnosed with the disease twice. The first was in 1999, and she endured over two years of chemotherapy. Three years later she suffered a relapse and needed another two-plus years of chemo, radiation and a trial medication that proved to be a miracle drug.

At one point, she said, her weight had dropped to 35 pounds and she was given a 10 percent chance to survive. Along the way she lost 10 of her friends along with her doctor to cancer, but Ashtyn beat the odds.

“Through speaking it’s helped me heal, just as much as I want to help other people,’’ she said. “I’ve gone through so much hurt.’’

But she is moving on from those trying days and will check in at the University of Indianapolis on Monday for her senior year. She calls the Legends experience “something I’ll remember forever.’’

In high school in Richmond, Ind., Ashtyn was a member of the state-runner-up girls golf team in her sophomore year and carried golf into college. After two years at Ball State she transferred to Indianapolis and is part of a strong team there. Though she’s a senior academically, she took a redshirt season previously and has two years of athletic eligibility remaining. She plans to make the most of it.

“I want to take my game as far as I can,’’ she said; “I love the game, but realistically I’ve got to get much better than I am now. I want my game to be the best it can be.’’

FRENCH LICK, Ind. — Jane Blalock and Nancy Lopez will be inducted into the LPGA Legends Hall of Fame on Thursday night. They’ll also oversee ribbon-cutting at the circuit’s new Hall of Fame at the West Baden Springs Hotel.

The big night precedes Friday’s start to the 54-hole LPGA Legends Championship on the spectacular Pete Dye Course here. Both Blalock and Lopez will play in the three-day event, but receiving well-deserved recognition for their golf accomplishments will take precedence.

Lopez has been one of the most popular players ever in women’s golf, having won 48 times on the LPGA Tour before moving on to the Legends circuit. Blalock was a gritty competitor, too, as shown by her 29 LPGA titles and LPGA record for most consecutive cuts made (299) but her efforts off the course overshadow her stellar playing record.

Without Blalock there would likely be no Legends Tour. She, along with 24 other senior players, put in $5,000 apiece to get things started in the 1990s. They didn’t receive much support from LPGA headquarters then but – led by Blalock as chief executive officer – the Legends Tour has carried on.

“Some people think I own it,’’ said Blalock. “I don’t. I just run everything.’’

And, operating with a small staff from her Boston office, she’s run it well.

“Our first real tournament was in Green Bay, Wis., in 2000,’’ recalled Blalock. “It was great. We had 15,000 people a day. I’ll never forget the goose bumps when I arrived there for the first day. We were front-page news. Then the LPGA took notice and became a little more helpful. We were off and running.’’

It hasn’t been the smoothest ride since then. The Green Bay event, which had a $500,000 purse, thrived for three years and another popular tournament in DesMoines had a four-year run. Both had changes in local leadership, though, and didn’t survive.

Still, the circuit managed to put on several events each year and the same players were even more successful in Blalock’s other golf venture – a series of one-day clinics under the banner of LPGA Golf Clinics for Women. The clinic series is in its 24th year and the Legends Tour in its 14th.

This week Blalock revealed some big news for the circuit. Walgreen’s has signed on for two more years to host tournaments in Phoenix and Delray Beach, Fla., and Juli Inkster, winding down her career on the LPGA circuit, has agree to join the Legends for its Handa Cup team event in Mississippi next month. It’ll be played at the Old Waverly course where Inkster won the 1999 U.S. Women’s Open.

Last year the Legends had 11 tournaments. This year there’s seven but the number will be up again next year. Blalock expects to have at least 10 events when the 2015 schedule is announced and the circuit could grow dramatically in subsequent years if the long-discussed U.S. Women’s Senior Open becomes a reality.

The U.S. Golf Assn. is considering creating such a championship, and president Tom O’Toole said meetings with Legends members on the topic at both Phoenix and Pinehurst, N.C., weren’t just “lip service’’ on the USGA’s part. The LPGA is supporting the Legends’ cause as well.

“There were a few different commissioners, and for a time the LPGA didn’t hurt us, but certainly didn’t help us, either,’’ said Blalock. “That’s changing now with Mike Whan (as commissioner). He’s a visionary, a go-getter. He’s got the Symetra Tour in good order and he’s picking up more tournaments for the LPGA. He knew he had to right his own ship, so now we’ll get more support.’’

Since the two preliminary meetings with the USGA Blalock said that Whan has asked her “for more ammunition, which I gave him….We put together a powerful document. Now I feel it’s not if (we’ll get a U.S. Women’s Senior Open), but when.’’

“I’m optimistic for the first time,’’ said Blalock, “and I want to get it in 2016 while Lopez is still playing. Can you imagine how much that would help our tour? The LPGA is talking about doing a championship for us, too. I met with Mike Whan in June, and he brought it up.’’

To stimulate more interaction with the USGA the Legends offered invitations to both the winner and runner-up from the U.S. Women’s Amateur to compete in the Legends’ November stop in Florida and both accepted.

One USGA concern was whether there’d be enough senior women willing to compete to make the U.S. Senior Women’s Open a viable championship. Blalock says there are “easily 100’’ who would try just on the pro side and the Legends would provide most of them.

Back in 2000 the circuit called itself the Women’s Senior Golf Tour. Many of its players didn’t like the “senior’’ connotation and then the men’s circuit changed its name from the Senior PGA Tour to the Champions Tour. The led the women to change, too.

“We did some brainstorming,’’ said Blalock, “and feel that Legends is a really good name. It doesn’t mean you have to be old. It denotes quality. It works.’’

The LPGA’s first International Crown competition ended less than a week ago and already preparations are well underway for the second staging, in July of 2016 at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove.

Rich Harvest owner Jerry Rich, LPGA star Anna Nordquist from Sweden and LPGA commissioner Mike Whan (left to right) hosted a Launch Party on Friday at Naperville’s Hotel Arista for the next eight-country, 32-player competition two years down the road. The first version was won by Spain at Caves Valley in Maryland. The Rich Harvest version falls a month before golf’s return to the Olympics in Brazil.

“I love the Olympics, but we’ll give the world what the Olympics won’t,’’ said Whan, who grew up in Naperville. “The Olympics won’t give us team dynamics.’’

The International Crown certainly did at Caves Valley. The top two seeded teams, the U.S. and Korea, met in a do-or-die playoff for the fifth and last spot in the finals, Korea winning. The disappointing showing by Team USA didn’t hurt world-wide viewership.

“There were 167 countries watching, ‘’ reported Whan, “and our Saturday TV viewership was 82 percent of the number at our last Solheim Cup.’’

For a first-year event, that was deemed outstanding, and Whan added that “over 5,000 articles were written about the International Crown in Korea alone.’’

Rich hosted the most successful Solheim Cup, a U.S. win over Europe in 2009. He and Whan started plans for creation of International Crown a few weeks later at Rich Harvest.

“Chicago’s the greatest place in the world if you love golf,’’ said Rich. “People really turned out in 2009, and we’ve been working for over two years on the next International Crown.’’

A big part of that work has been in the recruitment of high school golfers. Rich invited every girls team in Illinois to the 2009 Solheim Cup. For the International Crown he’s invited over 1,800 teams from Illinois and neighboring states. They’ll be housed at Northern Illinois University and Aurora University during the matches.

Whan also announced the first two Ambassador Sponsors for 2016, Rolex and Calamos Investments. The first Crown had five corporate sponsors. More will be coming.

“Jerry’s going to make it huge,’’ said Whan. “Rich Harvest is one of the top 10 golf venues in the world. I can’t think of any that can match Rich Harvest for ambiance, specialness and theater.’’

The first International Crown concludes Sunday at Caves Valley, in Owings Mills, Md., but a Saturday gathering that wasn’t held anywhere near the course will have a more direct bearing on how the event plays out at Rich Harvest Farms in 2016.

Jerry Rich, in the forefront during the Crown’s creation, hosted a Watch Party for nearly 200 members of Chicago’s Asian community at The Stonegate in Hoffman Estates. Big-screen televisions flanked both sides of the speakers’ podium, ethnic food and beverages were offered and Crown memorabilia was available.

Rich and his staff hosted smaller gatherings for other ethnic groups in the days leading up to the inaugural staging of the global team competition, but Saturday’s was the big event that Rich most wanted.

Among those attending were Chunho Park, senior reporter for The Korea Daily of Chicago, and Kay Kihwa Rho, president of IOTRIO, an Asian education group. Chunho Park and I found out that we live just a few blocks from each other. What a small world we live in, and just one aspect of the International Crown is that it will bring people from different parts of the world together for a positive experience.

Another factor is the economic impact it is certain to have in Chicago. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has told Rich that the International Crown “is the Olympics we didn’t get.’’

The International Crown at Rich Harvest will be played a month before golf is restored to the Olympic Games in Brazil. It will be a big deal, especially if Rich’s efforts to stir interest in Chicago’s various ethnic communities is successful.

“The people we have here at this Watch Party will really make that event successful,’’ Rich predicted. “We need the various (ethnicities) on the golf course cheering for their countries. That’ll create excitement and let this tournament grow for the next 50 or 60 years.’’

Rich has no doubt that’ll happen (neither do I, for that matter). He has called the Crown “my legacy’’ and likens it to Bobby Jones’ creation of the men’s Masters tournament 50 years ago.

“We look at the International Crown as being as successful for women as the Masters was for the men,’’ said Rich.

The very successful Solheim Cup, staged at Rich Harvest in 2009, was barely over when Rich welcomed LPGA commissioner Mike Whan to his Sugar Grove headquarters. Rich told Whan: “You have the greatest product in the world, and you’re not marketing it properly.’’ (No argument from me on that one, either).

Women’s golf is more global than the men’s game, and the best women players aren’t Americans or Europeans. They needed a unique event like the International Crown.

“Of the top 100 players 60 percent are from Asia,’’ said Rich. “The best players in women’s golf are from Asia. We’ve found, in working with these ethnic groups, that they love golf but don’t know who the best players are. The Japan people, for instance, didn’t know the best players from Taiwan or Korea. This will really be something different for them.’’

Rich left Caves Valley at the midway point of the first International Crown because of the importance he felt Saturday’s Watch Party merited. He described what he saw at Caves Valley as “absolutely terrific,’’ though there were some understandable snags in a first-time event. Attendance – he estimated it at about 15,000 per day – didn’t approach the 120,000 who showed up for Rich Harvest’s Solheim Cup.

While Caves Valley looked great on television, it wasn’t as fan-friendly as Rich Harvest will be. The steep hills at Caves Valley made spectator traffic difficult but, again, the first staging of the Crown was deemed an overall success.

“If I was disappointed about anything, it was that they didn’t energize the youth at all,’’ said Rich. “We are really going to do that (at Rich Harvest). High school girls will bring energy to the tournament.’’

Sooner rather than later one of Tiger Woods’ longest-standing course records will be broken. I suspect it won’t take long. Curtis Malm just needs to find someone willing to play the championship tees with him at White Eagle Golf Club.

No one plays back there these days on White Eagle’s Red-White rotation of nines that comprise its championship course. (Another course record of 64 was set by member Ron Potter in 1998 using the regular tees).

Woods was still an amateur in the mid-1990s when he shot 4-under-par 68 while in town to play in the Western Open. Malm, the Illinois PGA Player-of-the-Year the last two seasons, became White Eagle’s head professional last winter and certainly has the game to take Woods’ name off the record books – and you can be sure he’ll be trying to do just that.

In the meantime, White Eagle is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. It’s a vibrant private club located in Naperville on the Aurora border that has a tournament history that shouldn’t be forgotten.

The club was created amidst cornfields for its opening in 1989. Just three years later its Red-White nines were used for the LPGA Chicago Sun-Times Shootout. The tourney was first held the year before at Oak Brook Golf Club, when Martha Nause produced one of the greatest finishes in LPGA history to win the title.

Nause finished birdie-birdie-birdie-eagle, holing out from the fairway on the last hole to beat Kris Monaghan by one stroke in the LPGA’s first return to Chicago in 18 years. The LPGA had a Chicago stop in its first season of 1950, but was a very sporadic visitor after that. Though the U.S. Women’s Open was played at LaGrange Country Club in 1974 and 1981, the last LPGA Tour stop before the Sun-Times Shootout was in 1973 – the Child & Family Service Open at Midlane, in Wadsworth.

As exciting as Nause’s win at Oak Brook was, the tourney profile was definitely elevated by the move to White Eagle – the first Arnold Palmer-designed course in Illinois.

White Eagle hosted in 1992, when Dottie Mochrie won the title. (She was married then, but later assumed her maiden name of Pepper and went on to a career as a top TV golf analyst).

The Sun-Times’ role as title sponsor ended after the 1993 tourney, won by a relative unknown in Cindy Schreyer, and Peter Fleming – best known as John McEnroe’s doubles partner on the tennis circuit – was the leader in keeping the event alive in 1994. The tourney was renamed the Chicago Challenge, and Jane Geddes was the champion.

Sponsorship was hard to come by after that, but the successful three-year run at White Eagle led to Chicago getting the U.S. Women’s Open again in 2000 (Karrie Wood winning at the Merit Club in Libertyville) and another LPGA Tour stop. The Kellogg-Keebler Classic was played at Stonebridge, in Aurora, from 2002-04 and it had high-profile champions in Annika Sorenstam (2002, 2003) and Webb (2004).

White Eagle hasn’t needed big tournaments to thrive since then. It added its Blue nine in 1996, making it one of the few private facilities in Chicago with more than 18 holes. A few years ago a golf simulator was added for use in the winter. The club has 75 players in its busy junior program, a caddie program that employs 40-45 youngsters, clay courts for tennis buffs and a swimming program that has participants from beyond the club membership.

The Chicago District Golf Association’s Sunshine Through Golf program also is a six-week visitor during the summer and the club hosts about 80 weddings and 20 corporate outings each year.

Malm’s arrival suggests a significant competitive event might be in the club’s future again, but only time will tell. For now club leadership is planning a renovation process that will strictly focus on enhancing the golf experiences for its members and guests. Part of the 25th anniversary celebration included an outing that featured Greg Huigens (photo below at right), who was both the men’s champion and men’s senior champion at White Eagle in 2013. Joining us the the celebration outing are Chicagoland Golf publisher Val Russell (left) and club historian Chip Wagner (second from left).

Erin Hills has undergone more than its share of tweaks in its brief history, but interest in the layout 35 miles northwest of Milwaukee has never wavered. In fact, enthusiasm for the course has grown with each of the changes made since the opening in 2006.

It’s good news, though, that the alterations are just about done.

“Except for the practice putting green we’re pretty much where we want to be for the U.S. Open,’’ said Jim Reinhart, ‘’ general chairman for the national championship’s first-ever staging in Wisconsin in 2017.

Reinhart, president of the Wisconsin State Golf Assn., was also general chairman of the 2011 U.S. Amateur played at Erin Hills. He likes the progress that’s been made since then. Work on the course began in 2004 under the direction of architects Michael Hurdzan, Dana Fry and Ron Whitten, and Erin Hills became the first course awarded a USA championship (the 2008 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links) before it even opened for play.

None of the events staged so far will have the impact the Open will have, of course. Recent U.S. Opens have had an economic impact on its area of between $120 and $160 million. Erin Hills is excited about its upcoming time in the sun – and is already looking behind 2017.

“We’ve seen tremendous building in and around the golf course,’’ said Reinhart. “We’re proud of where we’ve come from and where’s we’re at today. We certainly hope this is just the beginning for U.S. Opens at Erin Hills. We don’t look on this as a one-and-done opportunity.’’

The course has conducted media briefing days each year since being awarded its U.S. Open, and this year’s spotlight was put on Zach Reineking, the course superintendent who was on the job even before the course opened. He outlined the most recent changes, the biggest coming at the par-4 third hole, which is designed to play at 478 yards from the back tees. Reineking said No. 3 turned into a bigger project than originally planned.

“It started with a re-design of just the green,’’ he said.

In the end, though, that putting surface wasn’t just re-designed to get more pin locations. It was also moved 18 yards to the right and three bunkers were added to protect it.

“Now it’s one of our better holes,’’ Reineking said.

Two new tees were added at No. 5, another was put it at No. 15 to create the possibility of a drive-able par-4 and still another was put in at No. 17 to create a different angle into the fairway.

“One reason the USGA liked Erin Hills was because (executive director) Mike Davis liked the flexibility of the golf course,’’ said Reinhart. “We also have the space (more than 652 acres) for the corporate setup, and we’re excited about the number of spectators we can have for 2017 (an estimated 45,000 per day). We’re one of the few places where you can have corporate hospitality right on the golf course, and we’re sure we’ll have a lot of that here.’’

Erin Hills now has many similarities with Pinehurst No. 2, which hosted both the U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open this year. That was the first time those big events were staged back-to-back on the same course and the experiment has generally been considered a success.

“We share a lot of the same philosophies as Pinehurst. We have very restricted irrigation,’’ said Reineking. “How we manage our course is very similar to Pinehurst. If we get rain, we get rain. If not we allow those fairways to burn out.’’

Pinehurst has its wire-grass in the rough areas. Erin Hills has 140 acres of unmowed fescue. In recent years 2,000 trees were removed, and that opened up more panoramic views.

“It’s been an evolutionary process,’’ said Reineking. “We’ve gone through several changes since 2006, and the next three years we’ll refine details for 2017.’’

John Morrissett, Erin Hills’ competitions director, said tickets would go on sale for the 2017 U.S. Open shortly after; the 2016 U.S. Open concludes at Chambers Bay, in University Place, Wash. Like Wisconsin in 2017, next year’s Open will break new ground, too. It’ll be the first time the national championship is played in the Pacific Northwest.

Two USGA staffers will move to Erin Hills this winter. By the end of 2015 there’ll be a recruitment for volunteers.

“Our U.S. Amateur needed 800,’’ said Morrissett. “The U.S. Open will need about 5,000. We’re fortunate in that we have an enthusiastic, experienced base of volunteers.’’

In the meantime, this future U.S. Open venue continues to attract curious golfers from throughout the world. They’ll be coming right up to the closing date on Oct. 26. It’s all part of the extraordinary golf boom that has engulfed the entire state of Wisconsin the last few years.

“We went from a golf wasteland to one of the premier destinations in American championship golf,’’ said Reinhart.

And that golf boom won’t be subsiding any time soon. Golfers will keep coming.

As far as Erin Hills is concerned, that led to the building of a fourth four-bedroom cottage on the premises that’s now available. Rooms start at $195, suites at $450 and cottages at $1,100. The 2014 green fee is $225 per player plus caddie fees ($50 per player plus a suggested gratuity of $45 per bag).

There’ll also be an event to whet the appetite for the spectator golf to come. Erin Hills will host the Wisconsin State Amateur in 2015.