Lowe upset over birdie

Rob Lowe has been forced to give up golfing after "a tragic accident".

The actor was playing in a celebrity tournament when his perfect sand wedge shot hit a goldfinch in mid-air and killed the bird.

He says: "My luck continued to decline. It turns out it was the state bird, and killing the state bird is punishable by prison. By the time that the state police had found out, they (golf officials) had

sequestered me away into the clubhouse, and I sort of made my escape.

"I was completely traumatised so I've given up the game."

Lowe showed off a photograph of him holding the dead bird during his appearance on US chat show Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Thursday night.

The actor revealed that a group of mathematics geniuses playing in the same tournament calculated the odds of a golfer killing a bird with a ball: "They said, 'We have just calculated that the odds of you hitting this bird in flight is one in 247 million."