Interesting, the different directions this thread has gone.
For those of you who feel the ball is the singular culprit in the distances the TV guys hit the ball, how do you explain BDC's 30 yards (10%) increase over the last 3 years?
Surely he is the most extreme example of optimizing for distance, but it sure isn't the ball.
I am one of those vehemently opposed to bifurcation. I would be fine with a flat roll-back but nobody can ever convince me it's necessary. FWIW, I agree with Mike Clayton's premise that bifurcation by rolling back the elite players will ultimately result in everyone adopting that same equipment because we all want to play the "best" stuff.
Safety, Cost, Environmental, Time...all have some merit but all are still back in the hands of the players and clubs themselves. Why should the regulatory bodies mandate something in hopes of a desired outcome when that outcome isn't actually guaranteed, or even in their hands anyway.
Earlier I asked Sean Arble about forced bifurcations in the game today. May not have been fair since he only referred to defacto bifurcations but Jeff Warne and Kalen Braley (and maybe others) nominated a few answers...none of which are actually forced. They are no different than me playing the game at 7:00am in Philadelphia and someone else playing at 1:30 pm in Melbourne. They are purely circumstantial...as in, driven by the specific circumstances around that day.
Oh, and about 1% of the golf in the US (more in GB/I and Aus) is played at medal play with handicap so figuring out a handicap for different levels of equipment would be easy..."oh, you're playing with hickories today, great, I'll give you an extra two a side. Sound good?"