mere five-minute stroll from Augusta National lives a man with a more extraordinary backstory than anybody who will tee off in the upcoming Masters.was largely responsible for restoring Valentino Dixon’s freedom, which in itself is poetic given his upbringing in the streets of East Side Buffalo.
Dixon has rubbed shoulders with Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus. He has sold artwork to Michelle Obama. Yet for 27 years – he received a life sentence – Dixon was imprisoned for a shooting he was not responsible for. The delivery of justice arrived only after Dixon’s astonishing knack for reproducing golf holes on canvas. He walked free in 2018, after the confession of another man – made two days after the 1991 shooting – was so belatedly accepted.
“Had I not been drawing every day, a warden would never have known me or asked me to draw the golf hole.”