Kim disqualified for rule breach

Anthony Kim in discussion with referee Andy McFee

World number three Anthony Kim has been disqualified from the HSBC Champions event after using a damaged driver during the third round in Shanghai.

The American caught the club on a sprinkler while walking down the seventh fairway and proceeded to use the driver twice off the eighth tee.

Kim, 23, said: "I found a rules official and they told me if the club had changed it was a disqualification.

"I was shocked, I didn't know that was the case, but the rules are the rules."

Golfing precedent means that any player who damages a club, other than during normal play, and subsequently uses it or replaces it is disqualified.

I was just walking down the fairway and the tip of the club hit the top of the sprinkler Anthony Kim

"Tapping the club or banging it into the ground isn't under the rules considered to be in the normal course of play," explained European Tour senior referee Andy McFee.

"I said to Anthony I have no way of knowing if that club has been damaged so it is up to you, if you tell me that the club has been damaged and that is how you did it, it is a disqualification. And he said 'in that case I am disqualified'."

Kim, one of the star players of the triumphant 2008 American Ryder Cup team, began the day five under par, five strokes behind overnight leaders Henrik Stenson and Sergio Garcia, after a second round one-over-par 73.

He reached the turn eight over for his third round after a triple bogey on the eighth and was eventually disqualified on the 11th fairway.

"I hit a driver off the tee and I was walking with it as I usually do, I wasn't angry, I was just walking down the fairway and the tip of the club hit the top of the sprinkler," explained Kim.

"I looked at it and it looked a little bit different, but I wasn't sure. I put it in the bag and on eight during my practice swing I looked down and it looked a little bit different.

"I hit it and it went 150 yards, I didn't think anything of it. I hit a provisional as that ball was out of play, but that ball went 100 yards right, way shorter and I looked down and it looked worse."