Photo by Tyler Metcalfe

Former fraternity brothers to Billy Khourie joke around on the sixth hole of the Jimmie Austin Golf Course Saturday during the first annual Memorial Golf Tournament. Saturday's tournament was held in memory of Khourie, an OU student who died earlier this year after a snowboarding accident in Breckenridge, Colorado. Tyler Metcalfe/The Daily

Golf was played, money was raised and memories were shared Saturday at the first annual “A Servant’s Heart” golf tournament held at Jimmie Austin University of Oklahoma Golf Club.

The tournament was organized by the friends and family of Billy Khourie, an OU senior who died on Jan. 7, following a snowboarding accident in Breckenridge, Colo.

“We just wanted to celebrate all that Billy was about, what Billy liked to do in the town that he liked to live in,” said Brian Bogert, co-president of the Billy Khourie Servant’s Heart Foundation. “We just wanted a chance to bring together all of Billy’s family and friends, and hopefully have a time of celebration just to keep his memory and smile alive.”

Bogert said the tournament raised around $40,000 for the Billy Khourie Servant’s Heart Foundation, Prader-Willi Syndrome Association of Oklahoma and William “Billy” Memorial Scholarship Fund. The majority of the money raised will go to support the Prader-Willi Syndrome Association of Oklahoma, while the rest of the money will be divided between the other two funds.

The foundation hopes it can raise enough money to give an energy management student a full scholarship for at least one year, Bogert said.

Even though money was being raised for three worth causes, many of the 160 participants said they were participating in the tournament to remember their friend.

“[Today] brings back a lot,” said Clint Utley, journalism senior and Khourie’s Sigma Alpha Epsilon pledge brother. “Coming out here for this is basically the least I can do; just to help out any way I could. So I’m really enjoying it.”

Allen Robinson, Elk City resident and long-time family friend of the Khouries, said he coached Khourie’s father William when he was a child, and got to know Billy while he was growing up.

“Anybody that was as good a person as his dad was Billy,” Robinson said.

Bryan Beavers, 2008 graduate and fraternity brother of Khourie, said he was happy with Saturday’s turnout, and he could imagine no better way to remember him.

“This is just what [Billy Khourie] would want to do, come out and play golf,” Beavers said. “He’d want nothing more than 100 guys come out and have a blast playing golf.”