A new golfing competition is to be run locally each year in memory of a local identity whose contribution to the Raglan Golf Club is expected never to be equalled.
Golfers taking part in the points-accruing pairs event – which will run over the summer months – will be competing for a memorial trophy honouring the nearly 50 years of work which Myrle Robertson contributed to the club.
The club recently hosted members of Myrle’s family and it was at this function that one of her sons, Brian, presented what club president Peter Aim describes as the “very significant trophy”.
Myrle died in late September not long shy of her 102nd birthday. She had played golf from the mid 1960s until an untreatable hip collapse finished her golfing days in 1986.
Over her playing years she had been ladies club captain at the original golf site near the Waitetuna Valley junction, then captain at the course near the harbour entrance for another two years, and played and represented the club in numerous tournaments.
The club says not being able to play from 1986 did not deter Myrle from helping out with catering, events organisation “and especially taking the tournament entries and checking the scorecards, where her keen eye and ability to pick up mistakes were legendary”.
At the time of her death Myrle remained in office as the club patron, a position the club says was “richly deserved and which she was honoured to hold”.
Peter Aim said it was most unlikely any other member would ever match the time and effort Myrle contributed to the club.
Myrle – originally from Australia – married Archie Robertson at St Peter’s Anglican Church in Raglan well over 70 years ago. Archie’s father had started up Robertsons’ Motor Transport before World War I and Myrtle herself later became a familiar and popular driver on the local bus runs the company operated.
When Archie died more than 30 years ago she moved from Robertson Road to a new home in Gillmour Street.
Myrle was still managing just fine in her own home when the Chronicle visited her in December 2013. Then going on 99, she had three “girls” turning up every Friday to play cards, an outing each Monday afternoon to play 500 at the Raglan Club and cane craftwork giving her little time to “twiddle my thumbs”.
A.T.
