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Gur Singh Memorial Golf Tournament moves to a digital platform

Golf tourney goes online

September's 17th annual Gur Singh Memorial Golf Tournament is moving online.

The tourney is the biggest fundraiser of the year for the Kamloops Brain Injury Association (KBIA). 

Singh, born Sept. 25, 1936, was the first neurosurgeon in B.C. after moving to Kamloops in 1967, according to Interior Health. He helped establish Royal Inland Hospital's neurosurgery program and would go on to perform thousands of procedures in the years that followed. 

Singh died on March 24, 2015 at RIH after a battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He was 78.

When he wasn't working, he was an active philanthropist. He set up the golf tournament; the event has raised more than $1 million for the Kamloops Brain Injury Association.

This year's version was scheduled for Sept. 11 at The Dunes.

David Johnson, KBIA's executive director, tells Castanet the association is going to open up the online event to those outside of Kamloops.

"If you don't know how to play golf physically, that's OK, you know how to play computer games. We don't really know how many people are going to sign up," he says. "Typically, we get about 200 people who actually come out and play golf. I'd like to think we can do better than that because it's a smaller ask."

Funds raised support KBIA programming and the operations of their downtown Victoria Street office, which is open to all brain-injury survivors. 

"That's important," Johnson says of the office. "If you have a brain injury, you're different and sometimes people treat you different. When you come to our office, you're just you and you can be comfortable, let your hair down, shall we say."

Johnson notes KBIA is holding an online raffle as well. The "Better Days Raffle" includes a trip to wherever WestJet flies, a full family membership to the Kamloops YMCA and a couple nights at the Sun Peaks Grand Hotel and Conference Centre.

Correction: An earlier version of this story showed David's last name as Jones. It's Johnson. We apologize for the error.



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