Play the ball as it lies, play the course as you find it, and if you can’t do either, do what is fair. But to do what is fair, you need to know the rules of golf. — Rules of Golf.

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Reporter’s Note: Much like the characters in those Lemony Snicket books, Wallace Greene has experienced a series of unfortunate events. Of course, his are not works of fiction and do not center around children growing up through terrible things. Wallace Greene’s series of unfortunate events began three years ago when he was enjoying his most favorite diversion — golf. The underlying principle of the Rules of Golf may be fairness, but I cannot imagine anyone using the word “fair” to describe Wallace Greene’s life, or, at the very least, not the last three years of it. On the flipside, I cannot imagine Wallace Greene uttering a single complaint about life’s ups and downs.

He is someone who believes that everything happens for a reason — even though that reason might be clear as mud initially. Like so many of you reading this, I first “met” Wallace Greene while relaxing in front of the television set in the comfort of my bedroom. He’s the “star” of one of the South Georgia Medical Center Dasher Memorial Heart Center commercials and may best be known for the following: “My wife and I have been married for 50 years. We are very involved in our church. She plans the trips, and I drive the bus.” Like me, you’ve probably seen the commercials, print advertisements, and billboards. Something about Wallace Greene — I have no idea what — piqued my curiosity. Call it intuition. Call it dumb luck. Something told me he had a story to tell.

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Wallace Greene, 69, was at the Augusta National Golf Club when Tiger Woods defeated, in a sudden death playoff, Chris DiMarco to win a fourth green jacket at the 2005 Masters Golf Tournament. It’s a moment he will not soon forget — even though he never made it to the sideline viewing area like the other spectators, even though he missed what has since been described as one of the best moments in golf history.

“As soon as I entered (the Augusta National Golf Club), I looked at my wife

and said, ‘I’m sick.’ I was stuck up by the snack bar area all day,” he said. “I just laid there with my head in my wife’s lap, and I heard the cheers when Tiger won.”

Wallace and his wife, Wanda Greene, 68, thought that maybe he had a touch of food poisoning or a stomach virus. His symptoms, after all, seemed to have come on all of a sudden. They did not really suspect his condition might be something serious.

“I felt so bad for him,” Wanda added. “We had to wait until the whole thing was over with before we could go home. We could not get in touch with the friends we had traveled (to the Augusta National Golf Club) with. They do not allow you to have cell phones, so all we could do was sit and wait.”

When Wallace finally made it back home later on that evening, he went straight to bed, believing he would wake up the next morning feeling refreshed and well. When that did not happen, he decided to pay an impromptu visit to his doctor’s office.