Treena Moore (right) and her late mother, champion golfer Jane Little.
Treena Moore (right) and her late mother, champion golfer Jane Little.
Rotorua’s Treena Moore is continuing her champion mother’s legacy in the wider golfing community.
Jane Little was Australasia’s first professional woman golfer and helped establish the Hamurana Golf Club nearly four decades ago on the northern shores of Lake Rotorua, Golf NZ said in a media release today.
Little’s love for golf was infectious and was how she grew the club’s membership in the early days, Moore said.
“She built up this club. All the locals came to this club because of Mum. She really built up an amazing atmosphere here.”
Treena Moore with a photo of her late mother, champion golfer Jane Little.
Little’s long list of accolades included winning the New Zealand Junior Women’s Championship and the New Zealand Ladies Open in 1965 and the New Zealand Under-21 Championship for three consecutive years between 1962 and 1964.
She passed away at the age of 78 in October 2022, but Moore had continued to play the game and inspire others to enjoy it too.
This September, Moore, 52, is to honour her mother by taking a group of Kiwi golfing enthusiasts to the home of golf at St Andrews Links in Scotland, as part of her job as a travel agent in Rotorua.
“That was mum’s dream. She has always wanted to play at St Andrews, and when she passed I thought, ‘If she can’t do it, I will do it for her’.”
Jane Little was Australasia’s first professional woman golfer and helped establish the Hamurana Golf Club. Photo / Supplied
She said she would always remember the “huge” moment she held up the winner’s trophy from the first golf tournament she and her mum played together, Golf NZ reported.
“I will always play the game. It is part of me.”
She said her mum never pushed the game on her and was “just grateful that I was playing golf”.
Jane Little was Australasia’s first professional woman golfer and helped establish the Hamurana Golf Club.
It wasn’t until later in her teenage years that she realised how good her mother really was, and as her golf game improved, she began to play more tournaments.
The best part of evolving into the sport, Moore said, was that the mother-and-daughter duo got to play together, winning several Rotorua golf competitions between 1986 and 1988.
“Mum used to always say: ‘Play every game hole by hole.’”
Treena Moore with a photo of her late mother, champion golfer Jane Little.
Female golfer numbers boom
Golf NZ said its She Loves Golf participation programme had seen playing numbers among females boom over the past four years.
Rather than trying to identify and cultivate the country’s next Lydia Ko, the programme focuses on encouraging women to play with friends to enjoy the social and health-improvement aspects of the sport.
