Tiger Woods begged golf authorities to ban what he's 'never been a fan of'

Tiger Woods once suggested a major change to golf after admitting that he had "never been a fan" of one key part of the sport.

Woods is widely regarded as one of, if not the, greatest golf players of all time having won 15 professional major championships during his storied career.

Therefore, when he speaks out about a certain aspect of the current game, people tend to listen.

During his career, long putters became a key talking point as Keegan Bradley became the first major champion to use a belly putter while Adam Scott impressed with a broomstick.

However, in 2012 Woods admitted that he was not a fan of long putters, and suggested that a change had to be made to make them fairer.

Woods suggested the major change to putting in 2012. (Image: Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

The American's problem with long putters was due to players anchoring into the stomach of the belly and pressing against the chest of the broom-style putter.

To deal with this, he suggested a rule change that would ensure that long putters could not be any longer than the shortest club in the bag.

Speaking about the issue ahead of Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, Woods said: "I believe it's the art of controlling the body and club and swinging the pendulum motion. I believe that's how it should be played. I'm a traditionalist when it comes to that.

"My idea was to have it so that the putter would be equal to or less than the shortest club in your bag, and I think with that, we'd be able to get away from any type of belly anchoring."

The USGA and R&A - the governing bodies that oversee golf - reviewed the issue and Woods' suggestion, but unfortunately for the American, his idea to limit putter length was never adopted

However, the organisations did respond to the issue Woods was describing, as instead of banning long putters, they banned players from anchoring the stroke in 2016.

The new rule meant that players could no longer anchor the club against their chest or their belly and it applied to all putters, not just long ones.

Many believed that such a change would see long putters disappear from golf bags across the world, but in today's game, the clubs are still permitted for use, but anchoring is still banned, forcing players to use adapted techniques.