Peter Karmis carried on with his low scoring on Saturday as he carded a five-under-par 67 to move to 18 under par after the third round of the Cape Town Open presented by Sun International.
He found himself two strokes ahead of Colin Nel and Rhys Enoch, with veteran former South African Open champion James Kingston, Zimbabwe Open champion JC Ritchie and Merrick Bremner a further shot back on 15-under par.
‘Today, I drove it better than yesterday,’ said Karmis after his second-round 68 – just four under after his opening nine under.
‘I only missed one fairway, so I was in play all the time. I putted well again today. I think, also, I was just patient today. Being in the lead after two days, there’s a bit more stress and pressure.’
That pressure showed with an early bogey, on the 4th, but he was well aware of what was going on and he dealt well with it. ‘I made one early bogey, but I wasn’t that upset about it because I had my first half decent bunker shot in ages,’ he said.
He might have also bogeyed the last hole, but his seven birdies served notice to those who would pursue him in the final round that they better have the ability to go really low. It was only his fourth bogey of the tournament so far, and that only underlines how well he’s played – and how far ahead he could be had he not dropped any shots.
And there was plenty of evidence that somebody could go very low: Wallie Coetsee and Rhys West each posted eight-under 64s to climb the leaderboard, while Kingston and Nel carded seven under and six under respectively to stay in touch with the lead heading into the final day.
Karmis was conscious of the fact that those who went out early in the third round had a bit of a scoring edge on him.
‘It was a different wind than any of the other days,’ he said. ‘And there was no wind for the morning starters. When we started there was quite a bit of wind. The first few holes are right into the wind, and there’s a lot of danger around there. If you make a misjudgement, you can be in some deep trouble.’
He stayed out of the deep trouble, and he’s ready to do the hard yards in the final round.
‘There’s obviously a bit of work to be done tomorrow,’ he said.
Third round leaderboard:
198 – Peter Karmis 63 68 67
200 – Colin Nel 68 66 66, Rhys Enoch 64 69 67
201 – James Kingston 66 70 65, JC Ritchie 64 70 67, Merrick Bremner 65 66 70
202 – Oliver Bekker 65 70 67, Keenan Davidse 66 68 68
203 – Wallie Coetsee 68 71 64, Romain Langasque 69 68 66, Chris Lloyd 67 69 67
204 – Rhys West 69 71 64, Ruan de Smidt 69 69 66, Jean Hugo 65 72 67, Jared Harvey 69 68 67, Ryan Cairns 65 71 68, Jack Harrison 67 68 69
205 – Luke Joy 68 69 68, Michael Hollick 68 68 69, Toto Thimba 68 68 69, Tyrone Ferreira 68 67 70
206 – Francesco Laporta 70 70 66, Ulrich van den Berg 70 68 68, Benjamin Follett-Smith 67 71 68, Mark Williams 65 72 69, Kyle McClatchie 67 67 72, Justin Harding 65 67 74
207 – Shaun Norris 71 68 68, Antoine Rozner 66 72 69, Daniel van Tonder 68 69 70, Toby Tree 66 69 72, Vaughn Groenewald 65 69 73
208 – Herman Loubser 69 71 68, Titch Moore 70 70 68, Tyrone Ryan 69 70 69, Andre De Decker 67 71 70, Steve Surry 69 69 70, Zack Byrd 71 67 70, Damon Stephenson 67 67 74
209 – Tjaart van der Walt 70 70 69, JJ Senekal 68 71 70, Quintin Wilsnach 68 70 71, Rourke van der Spuy 66 72 71, Ockie Strydom 67 70 72, Jean-Paul Strydom 70 66 73, Martin Rohwer 65 70 74
210 – Christiaan Basson 67 73 70, Callum Mowat 71 69 70, Louis de Jager 68 71 71, Bryce Easton 70 69 71, Hennie du Plessis 65 72 73
211 – Ruan Huysamen 67 73 71, Matthew Carvell 71 68 72, James Kamte 65 73 73, Jason Froneman 70 68 73, Lyle Rowe 65 72 74, Danie Van Niekerk 67 69 75
212 – CJ du Plessis 72 68 72, Scott Campbell 67 71 74, Jaco Ahlers 65 72 75
213 – Andrew Georgiou 70 70 73, Neil Schietekat 67 70 76, Anthony Michael 72 64 77
214 – Lindani Ndwandwe 71 69 74
215 – Nyasha Muyambo 67 73 75
Photo: Petri Oeschger/Sunshine Tour/Gallo Images
