Marcel Siem DQ's himself over bizarre rules error at Open de France

Marcel Siem disqualified himself from the Open de France after nine holes of the first round following a bizarre rules mistake surrounding the issue of preferred lies. 

Siem, 39, revealed he had been convinced that preferred lies were in play at Le Golf National given the soft and damp conditions.

As a result, the four-time European Tour winner opted to lift, clean and place his golf ball on five different occasions on the front nine. 

European Tour rules officials then came over to Siem on the par-5 9th hole to inform him that preferred lies were not applicable. 

Siem had therfore incurred a two-stroke penalty for each violation, resulting in a 10-stroke penalty to his score. 

He was 1-over par at the time, so would have moved to 11-over par with his penalties, and he duly disqualified himself from the tournament.

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"I played the ball from the wrong place five times and conceded 10 penalty strokes," Siem explained on his Facebook page. 

"That was a little too much for me and I disqualified myself. I thought I owed you the explanation."

Siem has now all-but ended his hopes of retaining his European Tour card as he looks on from 189th in the Race to Dubai standings - and well outside the cut-off point for cards.

He will now need to earn his European Tour card through Q-School in November. 

Siem won his first European Tour title at the 2004 Dunhill Championship, before adding wins at the 2012 Open de France, 2013 Trophee Hassan II and the 2014 BMW Masters.