World number three Anthony Kim admitted he was shocked after being disqualified from the rain-affected HSBC Champions on Sunday after 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 proceeded to use the driver twice off the eighth tee.

Under the rules of golf, 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. 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," said Kim.

"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 five under par, five adrift of overnight leaders Henrik Stenson and Sergio Garcia, after a second round one-over-par 73 yesterday.

Prior to his triple bogey on the eighth, Kim was already four-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," said 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.

"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

5million (£3.2million) HSBC Champions in an attempt to take his place on the new lucrative Race to Dubai.