SSBajwa.com, India Post

India Post News Service

INDUSTRY: The SS Bajwa Memorial Golf Tournament, 2008 was held on July 12, at the Industry Hills Golf Course, located at one Industry Parkway, in the City of Industry, California. The foundation was created three years ago by three very prosperous and good-willed individuals: Bobby Kang, Baldev Kang and Sammy Kang, who currently serve on the Board of Directors of "Cargo Solutions", a fortune five-hundred trucking company located in Southern California.Being the nephews of the late SS Bajwa, the Kang brothers looked up to their uncle with great admiration and respect, not just for being a great sportsman, but for his desire to help the needy and underprivileged. What they learned from their uncle has been a life-long lesson: to fear God and to give to those who are less fortunate than ourselves.

To honor their uncle, the Kang brothers established the SS Bajwa Foundation. Its purpose is to raise money throughout the world by organizing fun golf tournaments to which sponsors and donors can participate and contribute. The money, off course, is then distributed to charities in both the US and India.This year's Golf tournament started at 12:30 in the afternoon, and included lunch, cold beverages, T-shirts and a round of Golf on the beautifully landscaped Industry Hills Golf course. It was truly a picture perfect day, with aesthetic waterfalls, man-made lakes and glimpses of ducks and geese, basking in the sun.

In all, 150 participants made it out to the golf-course; each was given a nifty golf-cart to zip around in. The tournament consisted of "Two Man Scramble", teams of handicaps of 12 or lower, 13 to 18 and 19 and above. The golfers eagerly competed to make it out on top and steal the trophy, but as expected Ravi Bakshi and Kyle George ended up winning with an impressive score of 63 (-9). Ravi Bakshi and Kyle George repeated their previous year's performance of winning the Tournament Trophy and should they do the hat-trick in 2009 they will carry away the permanent trophy for keeps.

Coming all the way from "The City Beautiful" Chandigarh was Jagdeep Singh Cheema. He is the Secretary of the Chandigarh Golf Association. Cheema briefed the guests on the forthcoming 2nd Annual Chandigarh Golf Tour scheduled Nov 21 through 23.

This is a premier tour which attracted 40 NRIs from 14 countries last year.The day ended with participants being treated to dinner at the Shehnai Indian restaurant in Brea, where they were given a full-course meal, free alcohol, live entertainment by Hari Shanker and endless Bhangra hits to dance the night away with. During the night Bobby and Sammy Kang welcomed guest, thanked them for their participation and revealed that the tournament raised over $100,000.00.

Among the chief guests were legendary Bishan Singh Bedi, former captain of India's cricket team and Richie Richardson, former captain of the West Indies cricket team, Sudarshan Kaur , sister of late S.S. Bajwa and her husband Sulakhan Singh Kang. Bobby Kang also read out a message from the Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Charanjit Singh Atwal.

To thank guests, several plaques of appreciation were handed out to sponsor and a raffle was held giving out the corresponding prizes: a flat-screen TV, various golfing equipment and accessories and a $1000 jewelry gift certificate. As the gathering settled down in their seats Hari Shanker with a couple of Hindi songs after which the program commenced immediately entertained it. Interspersed with the awards, golfing equipment, a $1000 jewelry gift certificate and a large screen plasma TV were given away to raffle winners.

Plaques of appreciation were awarded to the several sponsors.Since its inception the tournament has raised thousands of dollars for charities and in the previous year some of the recipients were the Vijay Amritraj Foundation, PARS Junior Golf Foundation, Heads Up Youth Foundation Inc, International Gujarati Charities, Get a Grip Foundation and the Walnut Gurdwara.