Since 1967
The Story of the Singh Open
Eight golfers. One tradition. Fifty-eight Opens and counting.
The Singh Open began in 1967, when just eight golfers got together for a round at Bonnie Brook Public Golf Course in Detroit.
Nobody could have imagined what those eight golfers were starting. Over the decades, eight became 20, then 50, then 100 — and at its height the Singh Open routinely drew as many as 250 players, with a waiting list of golfers hoping to get in.
It wasn't always called the Singh Open. As H.K. Singh remembers it, the early outing followed him as he moved from department to department at work. The tournament would take on the name of the department — at one point becoming the Numerical Control Golf Outing, and later another departmental outing.
Then one of the golfers had a much simpler idea. Everyone agreed, and the name stayed. A casual suggestion among friends became the name of a tournament that would endure for generations.
As the tournament grew, the organizers wanted traditions of their own. Someone suggested taking inspiration from one of golf's greatest traditions — the Masters Tournament and its famous champion's jacket — and for a few years the Singh Open had a champion's jacket of its own.
But the golfers wanted something distinctive, something that represented the tournament's heritage. They asked H.K. what a traditional honor from India might be. He had an answer: a kirpan, a ceremonial sword with deep significance in the Sikh tradition.
H.K. didn't simply order one from a catalog. On a trip to Amritsar, Punjab, he arranged to have the kirpan made especially for the tournament — with one unusual requirement. He was thinking about the future: an ordinary steel sword could eventually rust, and he wanted something that could survive year after year.
Decades later, that stainless-steel kirpan remains one of the tournament's most recognizable pieces of history — a physical connection between the golfers of today and those who built the Singh Open generations ago.
Let's call it Singh Open.The suggestion that named a tradition
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1967
Eight golfers in Detroit
A single round at Bonnie Brook Public Golf Course — the very first outing.
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The
naming"Let's call it Singh Open"
After following H.K. from department to department, the outing finally took his name — for good.
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The
jacketInspired by the Masters
A champion's jacket of its own — the first tradition the golfers built for themselves.
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The
kirpanA stainless-steel kirpan from Amritsar
Made especially for the tournament — built to last, and now its championship symbol.
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250
From 8 to 250 golfers
Friends brought friends; the outing became an annual reunion, with a waiting list to get in.
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58th
Fifty-eight Opens later
H.K. stood before a new generation of golfers and told them how it all began.
Make it from stainless steel.H.K. Singh — so the kirpan would never rust
The People Who Carried It Forward
Nearly six decades takes a village
- H.K. Singh
- Paul Gill
- K.P. Singh
- Joginder Khanuja
- …and many more
Organizers, volunteers, and longtime golfers who arranged foursomes, worked with the courses, handled registrations and prizes, preserved the traditions — and made sure everyone came back the following year. The Singh Open belongs to all of them, and to the hundreds of golfers who have teed it up over the decades.
From the Fairways
Moments from the Singh Open
