Arnold Palmer spent three years in the U.S. Coast Guard before he became famous?

In 1950, Palmer’s close friend and Wake Forest teammate Bud Worsham was killed in a car accident. Devastated, Palmer left college and enlisted in the Coast Guard in January 1951. During basic training at Cape May, New Jersey, he built a small pitch-and-putt course almost single-handedly, and he later rebuilt his game while stationed in Cleveland. He returned to Wake Forest in 1954 and, that same summer, won the U.S. Amateur. A few months later he turned professional, and the rest is history.