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.

“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.

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.’’

“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.’’

“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.

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.

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.

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.’’

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.’’