Colin Montgomerie Calls For Bifurcation: "Something Has To Be Done"

The eight-time European Tour Order of Merit winner told BBC 5 Live that the game has changed dramatically and the ball needs to be reigned in

Colin Montgomerie Calls For Bifurcation: "Something Has To Be Done"

The PGA Tour returned last week and one of the biggest stories from Colonial was the obscene distances Bryson DeChambeau was hitting it off the tee.

The Golfing Scientist put on 20lbs over the Covid-19 break and averaged over 340 yards off the tee during the tournament.

Eight-time European Tour Order of Merit winner Colin Montgomerie was speaking about DeChambeau on BBC Radio 5 Live where he said that the time has now come to introduce a tournament professional ball.

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“Bryson played with Dustin Johnson the first two days and he was giving him 25 yards off the tee – and Dustin is no slouch … Extraordinary. He is huge," the Scot said.

“It’s great to see athleticism in the game, but to see him carrying 330 yards in the air and with the bounce you are up to 350, 360? This is getting unreal, something we haven’t seen before, a whole new game we are beginning to witness.

"Something has to be done or these classic courses cannot be used.

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"On Friday, Bryson had 10 holes on which he was within 100 yards of the green for his approach. And if you include the four par threes that means there were only four holes on which Bryson was more than 100 yards away for his approach.

"The game has changed dramatically. It's now brute force and a sand wedge.

"I'm an advocate of what Jack Nicklaus proposes - a tournament ball for professionals, that goes only 80-85% as far.

"The time has come, because we can't be building courses at 10,000 yards.

"We haven't the money or the space and there are the obvious ecological reasons.

A tournament ball would be a massive step, because of that term 'bifurcation'.

"Yet haven't we reached that stage, now?"

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