He’s a PGA Tour pro who started at Golf Town.
Toronto’s Ben Silverman, who already has two Top 10 finishes in his first six tournaments as a PGA Tour rookie, took an unusual route to get to the top of professional golf, and that included a stint working at Golf Town just outside of Toronto. At the time Silverman was playing golf in the U.S. college system without the benefit of a scholarship, and used the job to allow him to continue to pursue his dream of playing professionally.
“It was good—I liked it,” says Silverman from his home in Florida. “I mostly did retail sales, but I learned a little about club repair and fitting as well.”
That wasn’t all.
“Oh, and I hit a lot of balls in the simulator,” Silverman says, only half joking.
He worked alongside his friend, Dave Stone, who eventually found his way to the LPGA Tour as a caddie. Once Silverman broke onto the PGA Tour, Stone was looking for a bag. Now the former Golf Town employees are taking a stab at the big time.
“Once he made his transition to the men’s tour I bugged him to work for me until finally he was available this fall,” he says. “It’s great having a buddy on the bag.”
The rise of Silverman, who earned his PGA Tour status through a win and five Top 10 finishes on the Web.com Tour in 2017, seems unexpected to everyone but the golfer himself. Silverman didn’t take the game up until his mid-teens, and never played on the Canadian national team, and didn’t receive a scholarship in the U.S. Instead he continued to make steady progress through playing mini-tours and the Mackenzie Tour/PGA Tour Canada. To many, it seems like a long rise from selling clubs to playing on the PGA Tour.
“I’m aware of where I’m at, but I’m not looking at it from an outsider’s perspective,” Silverman says. “It isn’t ‘Oh, my God, look at where I am.’ But I feel that I’ve earned it, so it isn’t shock and awe.”
Interestingly, Silverman is proof you don’t need to be a single-sport athlete to be successful. As a teenager, he dabbled in numerous sports, finally settling on golf. Cracking the PGA Tour, according to Silverman, is extraordinary given his background.
“It makes me proud because it probably was an improbable rise to the PGA Tour from where I came from,” he says. “I didn’t grow up in a golf background or come from a country club or play in junior tournaments growing up. I was a hockey player and doing other stuff. It just reminds me how much hard work and dedication it took and almost self-determination to make it happen once I decided to play golf for a living.”
Just this past weekend, Silverman captained the Mackenzie Tour Team at the Aruba Cup and helped lead them to victory over PGA TOUR Latinoamérica.
"We just have a head start, but we still have to go out and win at least four points."
Captain @BenW_Silverman has Team #MackenzieTour with their eyes on the prize. pic.twitter.com/kyww9dth5l
— PGA TOUR Americas (@PGATOURAmericas) December 16, 2017
What’s next? Silverman says making the Canadian Olympic team in 2020 is his target.
“My biggest goal that’s been in my vision since the announcement of golf coming back to the Olympics is to make the Olympic team,” he says. “There are a lot of little things I need to do to reach that goal—improve my world ranking, become Top 2 ranked in Canada. To do that I’ll have to get as many world ranking points as I can, collect as many top finishes as I can, and win one or two tournaments in the process before 2019. All of those are in my head as my ultimate goal.”
What’s in the bag
Driver: TaylorMade M2 (10.5-degree)
3-wood: TaylorMade M1 (17-degree)
Hybrid: Titleist H2 (23-degree)
Irons: Titleist 716 CB (5-PW)
Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM6 (50-degree, 54-degree, 60-degree)
Putter: Bettinardi (Custom)
Ball: Titleist Pro V1