Canadian golfer Silverman progressing away from glare of major spotlight
Brittany Marchand taking more traditional path in pursuit of LPGA card
The past two weekends have seen two significant wins by Canadian golfers away from the glare of the major spotlight.
Thornhill, Ont., native Ben Silverman, a 29-year-old late bloomer who now lives in Florida, won the Web.com Tour's Price Cutter Charity Championship in Springfield, Mo., at roughly the same time Justin Thomas was putting the finishing touches on the PGA Championship at Quail Hallow, in Charlotte, N.C.
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"This has been my goal since I was 16 years old," said Silverman, after saying he was still in a bit of disbelief at his win. "I also made a goal that I wanted to be on the PGA Tour by the time I was 30 and I'm 29. I'm hitting my goals and I'm excited."
A week earlier, Brittany Marchand, a 24-year-old from Orangeville, Ont., won on the Symetra Tour, the feeder loop to the LPGA. Together, their victories put both Canadian golfers on track to ascend to the PGA and LPGA tours in 2018, with Silverman virtually assured of his PGA Tour card for next season after his win.
Silverman was not an especially talented amateur player but showed flashes of potential while playing at a small college near Miami, and then Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. From there, he sharpened his game and competitive instincts playing mini-tours, winning more than two dozen events ranging from one-day tournaments for a few hundred dollars, up to five-figure paydays.
Along the way, Silverman won gold at the Maccabiah Games in Israel – a multi-sport competition modelled after the Olympics for athletes of the Jewish faith – and played on the Mackenzie Tour in 2014 and 2015 and then the Web.com circuit last season. Silverman didn't look out of place but there was nothing in his 43 starts on both tours that suggested he was headed for the big time anytime soon.
Changes on the home front
The magic elixir for Silverman may well have come on the home front. He recently became a father and his victory on Sunday came immediately after taking a break to spend time with his newborn son, Jack Palmer Silverman.
"[Fatherhood] makes it easier to change my frame of mind the second I'm done playing," Silverman said. "Even before I play. All I want to do is FaceTime my wife and son. It's now easier to separate the two frames of mind, so it's not like if something frustrating happens on the course, it continues."
Silverman caught a break earlier this week when a weather delay allowed him extra practice time on Friday. Powered by a pair of 9-under 63s, Silverman was 20-under par starting play on Sunday. He fired a five-under 67, including a birdie on 18, and it held up for the win.
"Coming back to the tournament [this week], I felt like my tournament aggression wasn't there," he said. "Having that [practice] time on Friday was huge for me."
To give a sense of how years of grinding away from the glare of the PGA Tour spotlight can suddenly change in an instant, exactly a year earlier Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., teed it up at the same Web.com Tour event. A year ago, Hughes was barely hanging on to his status on that circuit but won that weekend. Hughes stamped his PGA Tour card last fall and won on the big circuit shortly thereafter.
Marchand following conventional path
On the women's side, Marchand is following a more conventional path. She was a standout amateur and turned professional last year. She showed well at the LPGA Manulife Classic in Waterloo, Ont., back in June before slumping on Sunday to let the chance for a big cheque slip through her grasp.
Flush with confidence after her Symetra Tour win, Marchand has a half dozen more tournaments left on the schedule. She will have to keep playing well to climb up from 17th on that circuit's money list and secure her card.
If she can't crack the top 10, Marchand still has LPGA qualifying school to attempt to earn her card.
In all, Canadians have won a total of five tournaments on the four main North American-based golf tours during the 2016-17 season. Hughes and Adam Hadwin, of Abbotsford, B.C., have each won on the PGA Tour; Brooke Henderson of Smiths Falls, Ont., on the LPGA circuit and now Silverman and Marchand each on the Web.com and Symetra Tour, respectively.
Interestingly, a Canadian has yet to win on the Mackenzie Tour this year but Calgarian Wes Heffernan came close on Sunday, finishing tied for second at an event in his hometown.