When PGA Tour pros find a way to shave shots from their scores, they jump on it. That’s exactly what happened this past week with Canadian Ben Silverman, who tied his best finish of 2026, tying for third at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship after switching to the Caliber putter, nicknamed the hockey stick putter because the inventor originally used a hockey stick to design it.
For Silverman, the results after changing to the hockey stick putter were obviously great, as he would have legitimately had a chance to win the tournament had the final round not been canceled due to bad weather.
He has not been in contention often on the PGA Tour and talked with reporters about his nerves in that situation.
“It feels good. There's a little bit of nerves, there's excitement, a little bit of adrenaline, kind of a mix of everything which you get when you're in contention at the sport you love,” he admitted.
He also talked about the putter change to the Caliber hockey stick grip.
“I'd say it was a super fast learning curve. The only thing that felt different was the vibration of the ball coming off the face is different than a normal putter shaft,” he explained. “It almost has a hollow feel kind of like an old persimmon wood.”
He liked it well enough to reach out to one of the creators, Tim Wright, to have a putter made with the hockey stock grip.
Hockey grip meets golf 🤝
— PGA Tour (@PGATour) October 23, 2026
After taking influence from Tony Finau's putter, Ben Silverman switched up his own putter and heads to the weekend T3 @Bermuda_Champ. pic.twitter.com/CzAMg5kHXP
“As soon as I got used to that (the feel of persimmon), speed and everything was the same,” Silverman said. “The feel in the palms of my hands feels good. I mean, these are my first two competitive rounds with it. It just feels comfortable.”
It is the second time he has played the Bermuda tournament.
“Partly, I was honestly in a different headspace last year. I was not wanting to play the tournament just because I was tired, long season. Complete opposite mindset this time. I want to be here, I want to win, so that mindset shift kind of set the tone since Monday,” he explained.
It was quite by accident that he discovered the putter at the Bank of Utah tournament earlier this month, when he saw Tony Finau’s caddie putting the club back into the bag.
“Tony was going to talk to somebody else. Tony doesn't even know I tried it. I just told his caddie, hey, let me see that, and rolled a couple with it, and I was like, I like it,” Silverman said.
Also the idea of using something that looked like a hockey stick appealed to him. He can’t help it. He’s Canadian, and hockey seems to be in their blood at birth.
“I was like, let me see that, one second. What is that? It's hockey, right up my alley, I'm a big hockey guy, love it,” he added.
Silverman contacted Tim Wright at Caliber Golf, who turned around a custom design in six days. And this putter design is something more than adding a new grip and sending it out the door. A putter head has to be selected, and then it’s cut off about nine inches from the bottom of it and attached to the hockey stick grip.
“The feeling was awesome,” Silverman added. “It's fun for me playing with a hockey stick as my grip for the putter, and it was rolling great today!”
His first round with the new putter was a 63, followed by 67, then 69.
Before he put it in play, Silverman checked out the putter’s performance on a Quintic fitting system in Florida, and the numbers were what he likes to see. That gave him confidence and his best finish on the PGA Tour all year.
His position for 2027 is perilous. He’s below the 100 mark to be a part of those who get a PGA Tour card for next season. But he has hope.
“I don't look at it as a tough spot to be in, my game has actually been getting better. I've just had a lot of missed cuts where I missed by one, and I was right there and the game felt good,” he said. “I want to get inside the top-100, which I know is going to be win or a second or two top-5s or something like that.”
In Bermuda, he made progress toward his goal with a new putter and a top-three finish. He believes he needs one more of those to be able to celebrate for 2027.
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