Sparky Bifurcation won't work. It doesn't work now. Nobody is stopping the recreation golfer right now from playing non-conforming balls and clubs. Nobody is stopping the recreational player from taking gimmes, taking mulligans, kicking the ball out of the rough, rolling it onto some nice grass, going back to the tee after a lost ball instead of dropping the ball and saying "this is close enough", taking the eraser to the scorecard.
You will still be able to do all of these things after a ball rollback
Of course bifurcation with the ball will work. It works now with what you described and is the essence of bifurcation (2 sets of rules). We already have bifurcation with no one playing exactly by USGA rules. Gimmes, mulligans, kicking the ball, preferred lies etc..
The USGA can't punish someone for taking a breakfast ball on the first tee. They can't hurt my game there. But by not allowing bifurcation with golf balls they are punishing peoples golf game for absolutely no reason.
I would hope the ball manufacturers would weigh in and tell the USGA that they will make two categories of golf balls. The restricted one for competitive golf and a non restrictive one for the non competitive recreational golfer.
I was hoping the PGA Tour was going to tell the USGA to go pound sand, but now I'm not so sure. But maybe the ball manufacturers will stand up to these elitists at the USGA. We'll see.
The manufactures as far as I know haven't commented yet.
