Virtual Gur Singh Memorial Golf Tournament 'went really well'

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Organizers of the 17th annual Gur Singh Memorial Golf Tournament are pleased with how this year's virtual event went. 

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

"I think it went really well," David Johnson, KBIA's executive director, tells Castanet. "We hadn't done this before so it was something new."

Unlike previous years, when golfers gathered at The Dunes for the tournament, 2020 was a bit different because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants paid a registration fee and downloaded an online game called Super Stickman Golf 2. Players had a week and a bit to earn their best score and submit a screenshot of it. 

"We gave them one ticket in the draw for every negative point they had, so if they scored -18, they got 18 tickets in the draw (for some prizes)," Johnson explains, noting prizes ranged from a night at Sun Peaks Resort to a cocktail party at Earls. 

The KBIA also held a silent auction.

"We did better this year than we have in the past because I think a lot of people haven’t been able to go get their retail therapy because of COVID. They’re like, 'I can sit at home and go shopping and support charity?'" Johnson says with a laugh.

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. 

When he wasn't working, he was an active philanthropist. He set up the golf tournament, which has raised more than $1 million for the KBIA to date.

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

Johnson says the KBIA will be looking at whether the virtual fundraising model could be used going forward.

"Can other charities do this sort of thing?" he muses. "I would say to people, if you were supporting charities before by going to their dinners, by going to their dances, or whatever it was, they still need your help and you should considering helping out."

At the end of the day, the KBIA was able to continue Singh's legacy, and that's what's important, Johnson says.

"(This) was something we were pleased we didn’t get stopped by COVID."