Oakdale membership sparked Ben Silverman’s career

For Toronto-area native Ben Silverman, it’s hard to dream up more of a home game than this week’s RBC Canadian Open, which he’ll play on a sponsor exemption.

Silverman, a Korn Ferry Tour winner this season, grew up just 20 minutes from Oakdale Golf and Country Club, which debuts as RBC Canadian Open host venue this week. And his connection to Oakdale doesn’t stop there.

Silverman is from Thornhill, Ontario – about 40 minutes from Toronto’s downtown core – and when he was just starting out as a young pro more than 10 years ago, some of the membership at Oakdale helped him to represent Canada at the Maccabiah Games. The Games – the third-largest sporting event in the world after the Olympics and soccer’s World Cup – occur every four years, the year after the Olympics, and are sometimes referred to as the “Jewish Olympics.”

Silverman, whose father is Jewish, was scouted to join the team after his successes in college golf and as a mini-tour star in south Florida (he won upwards of 50 one- or two-day events on various small circuits in the Sunshine State). He even got a special bye to skip trying out for the team because of his continued low-scoring efforts as a newly minted pro. Not bad for a guy who, in his .

The only issue, however, was that the trip was about $10,000. Athletes need to cover their own costs to get to Israel for two weeks and compete. At that point in his life, Silverman had never been outside of North America.

“I said, ‘Well, I’m in. I just don’t have 10 grand to go,’” Silverman said with a laugh. A couple of guys on the 50-and-over Senior Team (there are five divisions at the Games: Open, Senior, Junior, Masters and Disabled) saw Silverman’s talent and covered more than half the cost. His parents topped up his account for the rest.

One of the older gentlemen who helped Silverman was a member at Oakdale, which will host the RBC Canadian Open for the first time in June. Turns out, Silverman said, every member at Oakdale needs to donate a minimum number to charity each year – something he’s never heard of at any other private club.

“Since its origination, it was expected that if you could afford to join a club like Oakdale, you could afford to give to the community and that’s the standard that exists today,” former Oakdale club president Mark Sadowski told The Canadian Press earlier this year. Oakdale was formed in 1926 at a time when most country clubs did not allow Jewish, Black or Asian people to become members.

“There were a number of members of the Jewish community who said, ‘Well, if we can’t play anywhere, let’s create our own place,’” Sadowski continued.

Turns out that investment from the Oakdale membership was a pretty good one – Silverman won the gold medal by 11 shots and Canada earned bronze at the team event.

And being named to the Maccabiah Games’ team had plenty more deserved financial windfalls for Silverman.

There are inter-club matches between Games themselves, and the United States often has a big golf match against Great Britain. The 2012 iteration occurred in south Florida, and the American side asked Silverman if he could play for Great Britain, given Canada’s connection to the monarchy. He did just that, and one of Silverman’s opponents on the U.S. side turned into his financial sponsor for seven years.

Almost five years after his appearance at the Maccabiah Games, Silverman first earned a PGA TOUR card after winning the Korn Ferry Tour’s 2017 Price Cutter Charity Championship presented by Dr Pepper. He kept his TOUR card for the next two seasons before ending up back at Q-School last fall. He finished three shots outside the number at Second Stage. But he took advantage of the first opportunity he had earlier this year, parlaying a sponsor exemption at The Bahamas Great Abaco Classic at The Abaco Club into a victory. He has added two other top-three finishes this season and stands No. 3 on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List, on the verge of cementing a TOUR return via the top 30 on the season-long standings.

Given his position, it was an easy ‘yes’ for Silverman to forgo competing this week on the Korn Ferry Tour in favor of playing his hometown event on the PGA TOUR.

“There is a lot of freedom in that,” Silverman said of his current spot on the Points List. “We’re transitioning for the summer to the New York area to my in-laws’ (residence), so I can spend time at home and spend time training which works for me. It’s better. The more balance I have between traveling on the road and practicing at home and working out at home, the fresher I am when I go back to play.”

There’s no question in Silverman’s mind that he can win on the PGA TOUR. He’s worked more than two-thirds of his life on that singular dream and admits if he finishes his TOUR career without a win, he’ll feel his pro golf career wasn’t complete.

“No matter what the tournament is, it’s my goal to win on the TOUR. If that happens to be the Canadian Open, it would be (expletive) amazing,” Silverman said with a big laugh.

This week, he’ll stay with one of the members who provided that financial assistance all those years ago. Friends and family and long-time supporters will make a point to be there.

Just 20 minutes from his parents’ home is now the place where Silverman hopes a lifelong dream will come true.