Kim disqualified for broken club in Shanghai

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - World number eight Anthony Kim's first tournament as a European Tour player came to an ignominious end when he was disqualified from the HSBC Champions on Sunday.

The 23-year-old American said he had damaged his driver on a sprinkler head on the seventh fairway in his third round at the $5 million event, falling foul of a rule forbidding the use of a club "damaged other than in the normal course of play."

"I was pretty shocked," said Kim. "I didn't think that would be the case. But the rules are the rules and I have no problem with that.

"I hit the driver at the (seventh) tee and I was walking with it like I usually do. I wasn't angry or anything, just walking down the fairway. The toe hit the top of the sprinkler."

Kim clearly gained no advantage from the damage to the club head, hitting a triple-bogey eight after two errant drives at the eighth and dropping another at the ninth. He was disqualified after parring the 10th.

"He used the driver twice on the eighth tee and both times the ball went a long way right," said European Tour senior referee Andy McFee.

"It was his own conclusion that he had damaged the driver head and he alerted us to this immediately."

Kim made an impressive Ryder Cup debut and won twice on the U.S. PGA Tour this year to move into the world top 10.

He joined the European Tour for the first season of the lucrative "Race to Dubai," which starts at the Sheshan International Golf Club this weekend.

His disqualification is just latest in a series of misfortunes over the last couple of weeks after he fell down a set of stairs and took a blow on the jaw from a rearing horse, leaving him limping and unable to eat solid food.

After an impressive first round six-under-par 66, Kim slumped to a 73 in his second round on Saturday and had already dropped four shots on Sunday by the time his driver problems began on the seventh hole.

(Editing by Ed Osmond)