‘The Garner Files’
TV’s top gumshoe has a love for the game
You can look it up. Toptenz.net says Jim Rockford is the No. 1 TV detective. As a big fan of the 1970s show “The Rockford Files,” that site is preaching to the choir. So when I heard about “The Garner Files” (Simon & Schuster), a memoir written by Jon Winokur, the book went to the must-read list.
Garner’s primary TV leading roles came in “Maverick” (1957-60) and “The Rockford Files” (1974-80). He won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 1977. He also appeared in more than 50 movies.
The Rockford cast included Noah Beery Jr. (“Rocky”, Jim’s lovable dad), Gretchen Corbett (“Beth Davenport”, Rockford’s lawyer and sometimes love interest) and the thoroughly despicable yet enjoyable “weasel” Stuart Margolin (“Angel Martin”). Guest stars in the 123-episode series included Lauren Bacall, Ned Beatty, Mariette Hartley, Isaac Hayes, Rita Moreno, Rob Reiner, Tom Selleck and James Woods.
Only a handful of “The Rockford Files” episodes had scenes on driving ranges or golf courses. In one episode, Rockford is abducted and taken to a club, where he is introduced to a thug who is the leader of a tax scheme / murder. Rockford loses the hole (and money) when he hits his drive into a water hazard after the thug neglects to tell him about the hazard while offering advice on how to play the hole.
The Garner Files” is a no holds barred, smooth read of 271 pages. One of the book’s 59 photos shows him practicing his swing at a range or a course, another is a pose with three playing buddies at the Bel-Air Country Club.
Garner clearly loves golf.
In Chapter Eight (“Golf”) Garner says he started playing at about the same time he began his acting career: in the early 1950s at age 25 “in Texas, in the snow ... with a red ball” while on tour with the two-act play “The Caine Mutiny Court Martial.” He started playing “seriously” in the late ’50s, was a member at Riviera and Bel-Air in the Los Angeles area and reports he has played around the world.
Garner learned to play “by observation.” He credits his late brother, Jack, with helping him get better, and received pointers from John Cook and a great putting tip from Gary Player.
He was a regular in the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am (now sponsored by AT&T). He had a match against Sam Snead on the TV show “Celebrity Golf” in the ‘60s (Snead needed a rally to tie Garner), and played with Dan Jenkins and later President Clinton, as well as Dow Finsterwald, Tommy Aaron, Gene Littler, Don January, Jackie Burke and Jimmy Demaret. He believes he played in “a hundred PGA Tour pro-ams.”
He shot his age when he was 70, “one of the biggest thrills I’ve had in golf.”
Garner, who turns 84 on April 7, had two open-heart operations in 1988. He has had nine knee operations, including three knee replacements (the right one twice) He wrote it is “arthritis that keeps me from playing golf now, and I miss it.”
He had a hard time controlling his temper. He said if he had not been so hard on himself he would have enjoyed the game more. He finishes the chapter this way: “But golf took me all over the world and introduced me to many wonderful people. Bottom line, I’ve taken a lot more out of golf than golf has taken out of me.”
Jerry Karpowicz, when he’s not watching reruns of “The Rockford Files,” is a freelance writer who lives in West Allis.
