Kim disqualified for using damaged driver

Nov 9, 2008 - 6:46 AM By Andrew Mullen PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

SHANGHAI, China (Ticker) -- World No. 3 Anthony Kim admitted he was shocked after being disqualified from the HSBC Champions on Sunday for using a damaged driver during his third round.

The 23-year-old American caught the club on a sprinkler head while walking down the seventh fairway at Sheshan International Golf Club and used it twice off the eighth tee.

Under the rules, which are built up through precedent, any player who damages a club other than during normal play and subsequently uses it or replaces it is disqualified.

"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," Kim said. "I looked at it and it looked a little bit different, but I wasn't sure. I put it in the bag and on (the eighth hole) 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. I found a rules official and told them what happened, and they told me if it had changed, it was a disqualification. I was pretty shocked, I didn't know that was the case, but the rules are the rules."

Kim began the day 5-under-par, five back of overnight leaders Henrik Stenson and Sergio Garcia, after a second round 1-over-par 73 on Saturday.

Prior to his triple bogey on the eighth hole, Kim was already 4-over-par and he eventually reached the turn eight-over for his third round before he was disqualified on the 11th fairway.

"Tapping the club or banging it into the ground isn't under the rules considered to be in the normal course of play, so if you damage your club other than in the normal course of play, you cannot use it again - and if you do the penalty is disqualification," European Tour senior referee Andy McFee said.

"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. He didn't know that was the part of the rules, but (playing partner) Sergio (Garcia) said he did and it has happened to him when he has not been able to use a putter. It is pretty common."

After winning twice on the PGA Tour last season and finishing fourth in the FedExCup Series, Kim only took up an Affiliate Membership of The European Tour in 2009 prior to the $5 million HSBC Champions in an attempt to take his place on the new lucrative Race to Dubai.