Excerpt from the Spring 2025 issue of the GAP Magazine
By Dalton Balthaser
The city of Philadelphia opened its arms with a warm embrace to Jim Gardner. Now Gardner is returning the favor to caddies in the City of Brotherly Love and beyond.
Funded by the friends of Jim Gardner, The Jim Gardner Endowed Scholarship is presented to a caddie who attends Columbia University (Gardner’s alma mater), University of Pennsylvania, St. Joseph’s University, Temple University or Pennsylvania State University.
Dan Hoban, a caddie at Llanerch Country Club who attends Penn State, is the recipient for the 2024-25 academic year.
“It’s important for me to give back because the Philadelphia community gave me so much,” Gardner, 76, of Villanova, Pa., said. “I couldn’t have anticipated the experience I had for more than 46 years at WPVI-TV. The city gave me so much more than I gave it, and I have been living in constant gratitude to the community that I served.”
Gardner began working for WPVI-TV the summer of 1976 and would serve the Philadelphia community for the next 46 years, primarily anchoring the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts. His impact was so profound that the studio from which the Action News broadcasts take place is called the Jim Gardner Studio. He was inducted into the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia Hall of Fame in 2003.
The game of golf wasn’t a priority for Gardner. It took him almost 40 years before giving the game a try.
“A friend of mine kept trying to cajole me into playing the game,” Gardner said. “I had no interest and didn’t think it fit into my schedule as a young father. He took me to his course and from that moment on, I was infected with the golf bug. It has been a love and hate relationship ever since.”
Gardner has been a member at Green Valley Country Club for more than 30 years and actively participated in its caddie program by taking a caddie throughout the years. He said caddies are a vital aspect of the history of the game and a player’s experience.
“A caddie is valuable on so many levels,” Gardner said. “When I have a caddie who can read greens well at a course that I am not familiar with, he or she will shave a bushel of strokes off my score. I appreciate young kids who are out trying to make some cash in the summer. Caddying is a tough job and you have to respect their effort to make money and be around the game.”
While Gardner wasn’t born in Philadelphia, he’s from New York City, it’s safe to say he made a strong impact on the city and its surrounding communities. When you turned on the television for the evening news and saw Gardner, you placed a priority on that familiarity. Just like the city of Philadelphia, he always stood tall in good times and in bad and you could always count on him. All important qualities of great caddies.
“For me there are a few fundamental traits that someone can have that are the most important,” Gardner said. “They are honesty, empathy, kindness and the desire to get an education. Education is a huge part of becoming a valued and competent member of society. If there is anything I can do to further that, it is my honor to do so.”
GAP
Celebrating Amateur Golf since 1897, GAP, also known as the Golf Association of Philadelphia, is the oldest regional or state golf association in the United States. It serves as the principal ruling body of amateur golf in its region. The Association’s 288 Member Clubs and 75,000 individual members are spread across the Eastern half of Pennsylvania and parts of New Jersey and Delaware. The GAP’s mission is to promote, preserve and protect the game of golf.
J. Wood Platt Caddie Scholarship Trust
The J. Wood Platt Caddie Scholarship Trust was created in 1958 and is the charitable arm of GAP (Golf Association of Philadelphia). The J. Wood Platt Caddie Scholarship Trust’s mission is to financially aid and empower qualified caddies and those working in golf operations in the pursuit of higher education. Along with aiding caddies financially, J. Wood Platt’s EMPOWER program strengthens scholarship investment dollars by providing caddies with exceptional benefits and leadership training through access to the wide network of J. Wood Platt donors and alumni. To date, more than 3,700 young men and women have received $25 million in aid from the Trust.
