I admit that, like many, when I’m not traveling week-to-week on tour, I spend far too much time in the GolfWRX forums – even though it is my job.
So when I stumbled on Ben Silverman’s eclectic setup at the John Deere Classic this week, hosted annually at TPC Deere Run, I knew more was needed to understand what was happening.
The first thing that caught the eye was the existence of two different driver headcovers. While this is normal early in the week on the PGA Tour, with many players testing out different setups ahead of that Thursday morning or afternoon tee time, Silverman’s bag was different in that the two drivers, plus the rest of the clubs, totaled to the maximum 14 that can go into play. With that, only one thing could be the answer – a dual driver setup.
We’ve seen it before, most notably when Phil Mickelson won the Masters in 2006. With Mickelson, it was all about shot shapes, one setup for a draw, with the other helping him hit a fade.
In Silverman’s case, his secondary driver is all about one thing: finding the fairway.
“At the time, it was back in 2019, throughout that season I was struggling to find a 3-wood that I liked and traditionally, I’d either have one that felt great off the tee, but then that one wouldn’t perform well off the ground that I wanted or vice versa,” Silvermand told GolfWRX. “I’d get one great off the ground and then it would be too spinny off the tee … So I decided, you know what? I’m going with a second club off the tee that I’m never going to miss and when I need to gear down from driver, this one, I’m still going to rely on the distance and hit its center face every time.
“So that’s why I went with the big size driver head and it’s built 3-wood length with about 12 degrees of loft, so it spins a lot kind of in the 3000s, and I can control it, kind of curve it all over the place and it’s mainly an off the tee club.”
Silverman’s “Thriver” is a Ping G410, set at around 12 degrees with a cut-down Accra TourZ RPG 400 Series 472 M5+ shaft, and he feels that he can get it out solidly to the 270-yard mark.
“I also liked that head tended to be a spinner for me, and I wanted the extra spin in that setup, so it worked out perfectly,” Silverman said on the older driver head choice.
Diving deeper into Silverman’s bag, his 5-wood draws some attention, with the inclusion of a lighter-than-usual Fujikura Ventus Red 6X shaft, but bent lower than 18 degrees to bridge the gap between the two drivers.
Progressing to the bottom of the bag, Silverman’s wedges are both literally and figuratively eye-catching. Both his S159 56- and 60-degree wedges are in Ping’s E grind, a design based on their iconic Ping Eye 2 shaping, with the sharp high-toe and increased offset.
“When they showed me the grind, I got so much extra spin on chip shots around the green with it and so I started out with the lob wedge and then eventually did it with the 56 degree as well just to have a similar look when I’m chipping with either one around the green,” Silverman said on the grind choice. “And it just created a lot more spin for me on shots around the green.
“I’d naturally open it to get rid of the offset look when I’d set it down on the ground, but then it would just look like I had so much face to work with, especially in deep lies in the rough and stuff like that. And if I catch it high toe going through a lot of rough, there’s tons of face up there with this setup. So it works really nice.”
Finally, Silverman’s bag includes a custom Bettinardi, with all kinds of bells and whistles. Covered in lead tape, the face includes custom Hex milling and F.I.T. face design. It doesn’t stop there. The flatstick also features a custom alignment aid, built specifically for Silverman’s needs.
“I’m a very abstract visual putter,” Silverman said. “I like to see curves and see lines on the greens and I don’t put with a line on my ball… I literally kind of use my eyes, triangulate the two dots on top, the one in the back, and I see kind of a triangular sight line as I look down and then I just see the curve and the path of the putt from there.”
Check out Silverman’s full WITB gallery here.
