There’s Plenty in the Garner Files

If Jack Garner were to read his own biographical card, as he read the bios of LPGA players before they teed off on the first hole in Saturday’s second round of the Los Angeles Women’s Championship at Oakmont Country Club, it might go something like this:

Ladies and gentlemen, on the first tee. . . .

An 18-year teaching professional at Oakmont Country Club, who once built a golf course by hand. . . .

The older brother of actor James Garner who has appeared in more than 60 episodes of the Rockford Files as well as countless bit parts in major motion pictures. . . .

A former minor-league baseball player in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ organization, and one-time lead singer in the house band at the Coconut Grove in Los Angeles. . . .

Originally from Norman, Okla., now residing in Valley Village, please welcome . . . Jack Garner.

The man reading the bios has quite a history.

“I’ve done just about everything,” Garner said. “I’ve had a good life, more than anyone could ever want.”

But Garner, whose bio card could go on to include surviving a bout with polio in the 1940s without becoming disabled and earning all-state honors in basketball and football as a high school senior, is probably best known for smoking cigars.

“You never see him without a cigar,” said Claude Hayashibara, who has worked with Garner at Oakmont for eight years. “He loves his cigars.”

Garner, whose thick bifocals are caked with a brown haze caused by cigar smoke, has been toking cigars for more than 50 years. His first manager in the minor leagues got him started in 1945 when he played for a team in Hornell, N.Y.

“His name was Johnny Morrow,” Garner said. “And since then I’ve smoked everything there is to smoke in the way of cigars.”

Garner toiled in the minor leagues for 11 years, but gave it up because he never made the big leagues.

He moved to Leezburg, Fla., and began playing golf on a beat up, unkept nine-hole course. It was there that he ran into a real estate developer named Jack Frisch.

“I was just out playing golf and he asked me if I needed a job,” Garner said. “Next thing you know I’m fertilizing and cleaning up this course.”

Impressed with Garner’s work, Frisch paid for him to attend classes at the University of Florida so he could become the course superintendent.

Garner never finished his degree, but took enough courses to learn what he needed to know. He left Florida with something, at that time, more important than an education.

“I stole a one-square foot of sod from the school nursery,” he said. “And with seeds from that sod we redid the whole front nine and planted a new nine.”

Once a wasteland of a golf course, it is still operating as Silver Lake Country Club.

Garner has worked in the golf business ever since and after a stint as head pro at Twin Lakes Country Club in his hometown of Norman, Okla., he made his way to California.

He tried his hand at acting, landing over 100 bit parts on stage and in movies in between gigs at the Coconut Grove. He still makes an appearance in some of his brother’s films, including the role of a bell hop in “Maverick.”

Garner taught Dan Ackroyd to golf for a scene in “My Fellow Americans,” a movie Ackroyd made with James Garner.

“I got a call from the studio and they asked me if I could teach him how to play golf,” Garner said. “I said, ‘Sure, how long do I have?’ They said they could give him to me for two hours.”

“I’ve never seen a man try so hard as Ackroyd did and he could actually swing,” Garner added. “But I hit all of the balls and they would insert the shots I hit during the golf scenes.”

Garner also got to play the role of Ackroyd’s caddie in the movie.

At Oakmont, Garner is well-respected as a teacher and well-known for other talents.

“He takes my money every time we play,” said Oakmont member Bill Barr, who plays with Garner two or three times a week. “He’s a great storyteller and he’s lighthearted, but he takes his golf pretty seriously.”

Garner, 70, can still shoot his age, but some say his best talents are off the course.

“When I first came here everyone told me to watch out for Jack,” Hayashibara said. “He’s full of jokes and he imitates people. He’s so talented it’s scary.”

Garner, known as the “doughnut king” in Oakmont circles because of his penchant for sweets in the morning, will again introduce players on the first tee today.

Some members of the LPGA Tour have asked Garner to cut some of the information on their cards because they get tired of hearing the same thing tournament after tournament.

“They say, ‘Just read my name, Jack,’ ” he said.

Garner, who’s bio card could be changed over and over without repeating any information, wouldn’t have that problem.