David Lorenzo wore his Class of 1964 Naval Academy ring for many a combat mission while serving in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. He even had it on after his F-8 Crusader was hit by enemy fire, and he was forced to eject over Laos in January 1968. And yet, the ring somehow fell off during a 1970 golf outing with his father at Uniontown Country Club outside of Pittsburgh. “It survived combat, but it couldn’t survive my golf game,” Lorenzo said.

Well, now, the 82-year-old man and his ring have been reunited thanks to Pennsylvania golfer Michael Zenert, who found the band while playing Uniontown this summer.

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Zenert was near the fourth green when he spotted a “clay splotch” that popped up after recent rain. There, right there, was Lorenzo’s ring.

“I saw this shiny thing and I thought it was a beer can tab,” Zenert told the Pensacola News Journal. “I dug it out so no one would step on it and I saw it was a ring.” Zenert then cleaned the object up and was able to identify whose ring it was with the name engraved on the inside and the Class of 1964 markings.

The 70-year-old Zenert and his wife, Carol, tracked down Lorenzo after listening to a podcast in which the serviceman broke down his military background. Taking the extra step, Zenert trekked down to Florida, not wanting the ring to get lost in the mail.

David Lorenzo’s wife, Cathy, bought him a replacement some time ago after the golf blunder, but he was still overjoyed to have his original class ring back in his possession.

“I never thought I would see it again,” Lorenzo said upon the ring’s return at the National Naval Aviation Museum at Naval Air Station Pensacola. “It was very sad when I lost it, and this means a lot.”

It doesn’t totally fit, but it’s “very close,” all the way up to the first knuckle. “I was 145 pounds soaking wet back then with a 28-inch waist,” Lorenzo said. “That’s about a 50 pounds and 10 inches” difference from the present.”

On why it took more than 50 years for the ring to find its way back to him, Lorenzo had a simple answer that we can all relate to: “Of course, I was in the rough. That’s why nobody found it.”

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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com