Strictly speaking, Walter Godfrey retired "from everything" about two years ago.
A combination of eyesight problems and other physical deterioration, attributed to his advancing years - he turned 68 in October - convinced him it was time to ease out of competitive golf and take it easy.
Yet here he is, sitting in the sun outside the Otago Golf Club's clubhouse at Balmacewen, having just signed for a creditable 3-over-par 74 on the first day of the City of Dunedin Legends Pro-Am - but still wishing he was back home in Sydney.
"To come to New Zealand seemed like a good idea. I hadn't been down to the South Island for years and it's a great place . . . but now I just feel like going home.
"It's hard to enjoy something that you could do reasonably well years ago and even though you get older should still be able to play respectably, like Charlie [Sir Bob Charles]; he's 73, I'm 68.
"But it becomes difficult. I lose focus easy. I don't get angry, I just get annoyed that I can't hit the shots that I can see in my head but I can't do."
Despite his obvious disappointment, Godfrey admits with a laugh he only has himself to blame for not practising enough, something he puts down to his reconstructed left shoulder lacking power, and his failing eyesight.
Today's round is the best score he's recorded since he left Sydney a fortnight earlier for what he thought might be a "nice little tour" including new events for senior golfers at Millbrook, Queenstown and Dunedin.
And it's his first competitive round of golf at Balmacewen since he finished tied for third with David Good behind Peter Thomson and Maurice Bembridge in the 1971 New Zealand Open, the year Thomson won a record ninth Open.
In those days, Godfrey was among New Zealand and Australia's leading golfers and a regular visitor to Dunedin, competing several times in the Otago Charity Classic at St Clair, finishing third equal to Charles the weekend after the 1971 Open.
Godfrey's golfing career got off to a sensational start when he won the New Zealand Amateur Championship at St Andrews, Hamilton, in 1958, aged just 16, the youngest to win the title and matched only by Danny Lee in 2007.
But while he still clearly remembers that first title 52 years ago, Godfrey claims he was "lucky" to win because the best amateurs at the time - Charles, Ted MacDougall, John Durry and Stuart Jones - were playing in the first Eisenhower Trophy, the world's leading event for amateurs, in Scotland.
Godfrey would himself play in the next two Eisenhowers, in North America and Japan, where New Zealand finished fifth and fourth respectively.
Then, in 1963, Godfrey turned professional, the same year he finished tied for 36th in the British Open famously won by Charles at Royal Lytham and St Annes.
But the drab European weather and the golf courses didn't appeal to Godfrey and he didn't play in another British Open until 1970, when he finished equal 22nd behind Jack Nicklaus at St Andrews. He then tied for 40th in 1971 behind Lee Trevino at Royal Birkdale.
Instead, Godfrey plied his trade mainly on the Asia and Japanese tours while playing regularly in Australia and New Zealand, winning his share of tournaments and being awarded the Jellicoe Cup for the lowest round (67) at the 1974 Open at Shirley, won by American Bob Gilder.
How many career wins were there? Well, he never bothered to keep a total - "I'd have to think it was up in the high 20s," he says with a shrug.
Asked to name his biggest win, Godfrey didn't choose either the Victorian Open or Hong Kong Open, both in 1972, instead opting for two lower-profile events in New Zealand.
"The two tournaments I consider bigger because they had better players were in 1967 when I won the BP-Shell Open at Titirangi and then Metalcraft Industries the following week at Miramar, in Wellington.
"You know, like Thomson and [Kel] Nagle, who were in their prime, and then you had Billy Dunk, Frank Phillips, Allan Murray and Ted Ball. I'm not saying the Asian Tour players weren't great players, but in comparison to Thomson and Nagle, well, I don't think you could hold a candle to them. To beat them over 36 holes, which we used to do on the last day . . . that was even more satisfying."
Shifting to Sydney in 1972, Godfrey quit the main tour in 1977 because of eyesight problems - "I couldn't see 10 yards in front of me" - and then became a club professional at the Subang National Golf Club in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He spent five years there and got married as well before he returned to Sydney in 1982, taking a club job at Fox Hills for the next 10 years.
"Then I decided to retire . . . but I became so fat and lazy I thought I'd better do something constructive, so I bought a news agency and I had that for 10 years. During that time, I never touched a club."
But he never lost his love for the game and when told three years ago laser surgery on both eyes could make him competitive again on the golf course, he jumped at the chance.
Sadly, the operations have not been completely successful, compounded by reinjuring his left shoulder last year when helping his son lift a fridge while shifting house.
Despite these late-in-life setbacks, Godfrey insists he has no regrets, such as never trying his luck on the lucrative American PGA tour.
