The value of golf

[supergee]

I never liked golf. It’s not a major problem for me, at worst taking up space on the sports page for some reason, but I am vaguely annoyed that it is out there. As a participant sport, it is, as Mark Twain said, a good walk spoiled (unless one can afford to ride around in a silly little cart). As a spectator sport, it is for those, and only those, who cannot keep up with the frenzied, madcap pace of baseball.

But now we are seeing advantages. For one thing it is an instrument of Presidential Harm Reduction, like stealing dangerous papers off the Leader’s desk. The time he spends out on the course pulling his putts is not spent on worse things.

Now golf has served justice. A man named Valentino Dixon, serving 40-to-life for murder, was fascinated by golf courses, though he had never played the game, and he did beautiful complex, pencil-colored drawings of them. These were brought to the attention of Golf Digest, which published them and investigated his conviction, which turned out to be particularly shoddy. (Speaking of color, guess which one Mr. Dixon is.) As a result the conviction was overturned, and Valentino Dixon was set free.

[Golfworld, Thanx to Metafilter]

Comments

[cmcmck]

I always think of golf as a good walk spoiled!

The BBC has picked up on the Valentino Dixon story- hopefully, he'll be able to make a living from his art.

[ruthling]

i saw this on boingboing and it was fascinating.

[sartorias]

Wow. I never thought I'd find anything about golf interesting, but that was.

[minoanmiss]

This precisely.

[conuly]

That's a great story, though I feel obliged to state that justice shouldn't depend on artistic talent and good luck.

[minoanmiss]

This exactly.

[marahmarie]

I hope he gets to build those golf courses now (or at least sell the designs he created for them). Hot damn.