John Stern, centre, towered over his fellow Manawatū-Whanganui Freyberg Rosebowl players during their golden era.
John's 115-year-old villa houses his golfing memorabilia and he maintains his lawns at close to golf greens quality. When he played a few shots off the lawn for my camera, a divot slammed into me and he admired its perfect shape.
The house with its immaculately trimmed hedges sits across the street from the old UEB-Printpac cardboard factory where he worked for 38 years, his sole workplace from 1951 after leaving Horowhenua College.
It was where golf might have ended for him in 1967 when he almost lost his right hand after it was caught in a steel-and-rubber roller. He was screaming for five minutes until a woman turned off the machine just in time.