The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
In the spotlight
HBO’s Real Sports comes to Milford’s Great River GC
MILFORD — It’s a story about two men who came together through golf, but runs so much deeper than that.
Valentino Dixon submitted approximately 100 golf drawings over time to Golf Digest from his prison cell. He had never stepped foot on a golf course before.
Dixon also claimed his innocence for a murder he was potentially serving a life sentence for.
Golf Digest writer Max Adler took note of Dixon’s works of art with colored pencils and did a story on Dixon in 2012. He took it several steps further by looking into his case.
Six years later, in 2018, Dixon’s conviction was overturned and he was a free man after being incarcerated for 27 years.
“I didn’t think it would take six years for him to get out after I published that story,” Adler said on Monday. “But six is a lot better than never. It’s really great he got out at 49 years old. You still have a life ahead of you. Had he gotten out a little bit later, it almost starts to feel like your life is kind of over.”
HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel is currently in the process of telling Dixon’s story. Real Sports was at Great River Golf Club Monday afternoon to film an interview with Adler.
When Chapman asked Adler, now the editorial director at Golf Digest, to come up with a course, Great River was his first suggestion. He had played the Great River course several times.
The Real Sports monthly show is held in New York City.
David Scott conducted Monday’s interview, which was held next to the second tee.
“The story itself is almost hard to believe. If it wasn’t nonfiction, you wouldn’t believe it. You couldn’t believe it,” Scott said.
Real Sports has won many awards for its in-depth interviews and investigative series in sports journalism for 25 years. Chapman Downs, the producer for this story, said the show had already interviewed Dixon up in Buffalo back in March.
“He is not bitter. That’s amazing to me,” Downs said. “He is an amazing guy. He is just grateful. He doesn’t want to be full of spite. He is thrilled to be out. He is an inspiring guy.”
Shortly after the Dixon interview, production was shut down on this story due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
“We were going to air it some time in the spring, maybe possibly in April because of the Masters,” Downs said. “We had to still get shows on the air. We did them via Zoom like the rest of the world.”
Scott said this is the first interview he has conducted in person since the pandemic began.
“When we flew back (from Buffalo), landing at the airport, we got word from HBO that all production was shutting down,” Scott said. “This story has sort of been sitting on the shelf waiting for a moment where we could finish it. We didn’t want to resort to the web cam thing for this, because its golf, it provides a humane environment that could accommodate a socially distanced interview.”
Scott also conducted the interview with Dixon back in March. This particular shoot had to be rescheduled twice this summer for various reasons. “We wanted to make sure everyone felt comfortable,” Downs said.
Mark Appelberg, Great River GC’s general manager, said the course is normally closed on Monday, so that made doing the shoot ideal. Appelberg said he had to get permission from Sacred Heart University, which owns Great River GC, before going ahead with the project.
The warden at Attica Correctional Facility in Attica, New York, where Dixon was serving his time, was aware of Dixon’s art skills. He brought a picture of Augusta National’s famed 12th hole and asked for a replica drawing.
Dixon then used a fellow convict’s subscription to Golf Digest to do other designs.
Adler used to pen a column for the magazine called “Golf Saved My Life.” Dixon sent both a drawing and a letter saying he was serving for a crime he didn’t commit. He ended up sending many more drawings.
Dixon was convicted of murdering Torriano Jackson in 1991. Adler found the evidence against Dixon to be flimsy and testimony to be conflicting.
“All together, a fairly clear instance of local officials hastily railroading a young black man with a prior criminal record into jail,” Adler stated in a September, 2018 Golf Digest article written upon Dixon’s release from jail.
“It was really complex when I was investigating it,” Adler said Monday. “Now that it’s in the rear view, it’s pretty apparent the local criminal justice system saw an opportunity to railroad a guy who was on their radar as a smalltime criminal into prison. Shortly after, when it became probably pretty clear that they had the wrong guy, they were either too lazy or overworked or heartless to fix their mistake.
That’s why he spent all those years in prison because once you are in there, it’s almost impossible to get out.”
Dixon has his own website of his renderings which include several of both Augusta National GC and Pebble Beach Golf Links. They are available for purchase, with a portion of the proceeds going to The Art of Freedom Foundation.
“My goal is to invite Valentino Dixon down here and have him do paintings of a couple of our signature holes, put them in the pro shop and sell them,” Appelberg said.
Downs said he hopes the Dixon story will run some time this fall.
“It’s a reminder we still have freedom to live our lives (despite the pandemic),” Scott said. “I thank him for that and thankful we will finally be able to tell his story on our show.”