Taking in the Trash

As he prepares for his annual appearance in Colorado’s quirkiest charity golf event, Aspenite Robert Wagner dishes about golf’s

By Jake Kubié

Some actors are inspired to pursue a career in film by great movies. Others draw inspiration from classic Broadway plays. Robert Wagner found his muse on a golf course.

As he details in his recently released autobiography, Pieces of My Heart, his father moved the family from Detroit to Los Angeles in 1937, where they lived in the burgeoning Bel-Air neighborhood. In 1942, at the age of 12, Robert started working at the Bel-Air Stables and one day, on a break from his job, he took a homemade sled crafted from corrugated tin and slid down a hill coming to rest beneath a stand of trees along the Bel-Air Country Club’s 11th fairway.

Sitting atop a bed of pine needles, he sat and watched a group walk down the fairway. As they approached, he realized that it consisted of four of Hollywood’s greatest legends: Fred Astaire, Cary Grant, Clark Gable and Randolph Scott.

“In those days there was radio and movies, so seeing them on the screen and then seeing them in person was a big thing,” recalls Wagner. “They filled up the room, even if that room was outside. They were bigger than life. I decided if I could ever have the opportunity to get into the industry that’s who I wanted to become.”

Today Wagner is a Bel-Air member, and by most accounts, he has achieved the kind of recognition he craved as a youth. Under the guidance of stars like Spencer Tracy, Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis and studio magnate Darryl Zanuck, he has shaped a celebrated career that has spanned six decades.

Wagner has appeared in countless films (among them The Pink Panther, The Longest Day, A Kiss Before Dying) and television shows (It Takes a Thief, Hart to Hart). He most recently played Dr. Evil’s sidekick, “Number Two,” in the Austin Powers trilogy. His sonorous voice has narrated numerous documentaries, including Golf: The Greatest Game.

“Golf has been wonderful to me,” says Wagner. “It got me in the pictures and I’ve been able to play all over the world.” And with all kinds of people. Throughout his career, the man known to friends as “R.J.” has teed off with an A-list roster of golf and Hollywood greats, including Clint Eastwood, Dinah Shore, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Kevin Costner, Gary Player and Burt Lancaster.

His most memorable pairing came in 1960 on a TV show called Celebrity Golf, which pitted golf great Sam Snead against Hollywood’s hottest actors in a nine-hole charity match at Houston’s Lakeside Country Club. Given three strokes, Wagner beat Snead.

“I had the choice to play him in the morning or afternoon,” says Wagner. “I knew he was up all night partying and drinking gin and tonics so I chose the morning. Afterwards he wouldn’t shake my hand. He was pissed off.”

Today Wagner lives nearly full-time in Aspen with his wife, Jill St. John, a 40-year resident of the town, in a home they’ve owned together since 1998. And although, at the age of 79, he no longer maintains his Snead-beating golf prowess, Wagner carries “about a 14 or 15 handicap,” which he deftly applies several times a month at courses like Snowmass Club and Roaring Fork Club in Colorado, as well as at Bel-Air and at The Quarry in La Quinta.

His favorite round of the year, however, is the Trashmasters Invitational. Held this year on July 30-31 at Snowmass Club, the tournament has become one of Colorado’s highest-profile golf events, combining a host of celebrity guests, a one-of-a-kind format and, of course, a very worthy cause.

Founded in 1993 by longtime Aspen resident Boone Schweitzer, Trashmasters has awarded $1 million in scholarships to 48 Roaring Fork Valley high-school graduates, who have attended many Colorado universities along with schools like MIT, Clemson, Pepperdine, Wheaton and Montana State.

Now a successful real estate broker and owner of Boone and Company Real Estate, Schweitzer grew up in a lower-middleclass family in Wisconsin—the polar opposite environment of his ski- and golf-filled life in Aspen. At at a young age he realized education was his way out.

“When I was a kid, if I didn’t have a scholarship I wouldn’t have gone to 
school,” says Schweitzer. “It’s a cause that’s very near and dear to my heart.”

The truly remarkable aspect of the tournament is its format. As opposed to the usual scramble and best-balls of most charity golf events, Trashmasters’ format awards points for the less-than-perfect shots and odd occurrences (or trash) that happen in golf. 

“The whole idea for Trashmasters grew out of boredom with the same old formats,” says Schweitzer. “We started coming up with names for the events that happen during a round.”

And today there are 22 that have found their way into Golf’s Little Book of Trash. There’s the Otis, named for the elevator company, for getting an up and down. That’ll get you one point. Hit a cart path and you’ll get a two-point Willie, in honor of Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again.” More exotic occurrences get more points: a chip-in earns a three-point Watson, named for Tom Watson’s famous chip-in in the 1982 U.S. Open; an ace, called an Arnie is worth 13 points. Wagner’s favorite is the Barkie, which got its name after he struck a tree at Snowmass Club in the late 80s.

Schweitzer, clad in a judge’s robe and powdered wig, presides over the madness. “The appeal of the tournament is that it’s so straight-forward and honest,” says Wagner, who has played in it five times. “It’s a whole new way of playing golf. Everyone gets such a kick out of it.”

Other celebrity participants—including actor Michael Douglas, U.S. Open champion Scott Simpson, former Vice President Dan Quayle, actor Wayne Rogers, and Estee Lauder founder William Lauder— would tend to agree.

“Trashmasters is a fabulous event and benefits a very worthy charity,” says Oscar-winning actor Michael Douglas in an email. “The tournament is a hoot. There’s nothing quite like it.”

With the backing of stars like Wagner, Douglas and others, along with Schweitzer’s contagious energy and enthusiasm, Trashmasters will continue to grow. He hopes it will eventually become a franchised event played throughout the world. And with Trashmasters tournaments already taking place in Arizona, Wisconsin, Cabo San Lucas and Scotland, Schweitzer’s vision is coming to fruition. Here’s to spreading the trash.

For more information visit www.trashmasters.com.