Ken Borland

DURBAN, KwaZulu-Natal – Aged 40, Peter Karmis is certainly not old, but in many ways he is older and wiser now when it comes to his chosen career and passion, professional golf.

The fact that he has won before at Mount Edgecombe and finished second in his previous Vodacom Origins of Golf appearance in Sishen at the end of August, plus the knowledge that he has been working hard on his game (he was on the putting green until the sun set on Tuesday), suggest Karmis will be a strong contender for this week’s event on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast.

But Karmis is experienced enough to know that some days are your day and others just are not.

“Sometimes you just wake up and you know you’re going to play well. If you have not done enough work in the lead-up to an event you know you’re not going to win, but there are also times when you are fully prepared but you have to be content with making the cut. Just being in the mix requires a different mental state, guys talk about that mental side of knowing when to execute, even though your hands are sweating and your heart is racing. But I enjoy it, that’s what we play for, and that’s when your mechanics need to perform under pressure, which is why it comes back to hard work,” Karmis said.

“At Sishen, my mechanics were so-so to be honest, but my game is getting better again. I just needed that one good shot that would have made the difference. But it was good to feel the competitive juices flowing again.”

Professional golf is such a tough battlefield and as a career it requires much sacrifice, but Karmis has a stunning grasp of the balance required between golf being his job and the fact that, at the end of the day, he is still playing a game that one is meant to enjoy.

“A lot of a professional’s life is lonely because you leave your family behind. I know when I was in Japan earlier this year, my happiest day ever was when my family came to Japan, but the worst day ever was when they left.

“As a golf pro, you have to get used to not having your own bed, your own stuff around you, there are things like different food, driving on the other side of the road, and the different cultures you come across. Sometimes in Japan you get a caddie who can’t speak English.

“Some people just can’t handle all those changes, but I just love playing golf, even just nine holes or a pro-am. And Keenan Davidse and Christiaan Basson and myself actually drove together to Sishen, we had a road trip together and that was fun,” Karmis said.

Sishen is the Northern Cape mining town close to Kuruman and 284km north-west of Kimberley. If one carries on down the N14 towards the Atlantic, after another 422km one comes to the famous town of Pofadder and then, another 57km to the West, one reaches Aggeneys, where Karmis was born.

Apart from the mine that digs up the rich deposits of copper, lead and zinc, the golf course is Aggeneys’s only other real attraction. It is where Karmis first picked up a club, “messing around” with his father, a “really keen golfer”. The family then moved to Cape Town when he was seven.

Aggeneys is an oasis in some of the most arid, unforgiving territory in South Africa, but also some of the most geologically rich land in the country. It is not hard to think of it as a metaphor for Karmis’s approach to professional golf – it can be an unforgiving landscape, but Karmis is able to dig deep and find the things of value that keep him going.

The winner of the Sun Sibaya Challenge at Mount Edgecombe in October 2016, Karmis is back for the 54-hole Vodacom Origins of Golf Series event on The Woods course starting on Thursday and says he loves playing in KwaZulu-Natal.

One of the reasons is what many other people complain about – the humidity.

But that’s Karmis for you – forever turning negatives into positives.

A young Bulls side upstaged the SA A team by beating them 17-14 in Cape Town on Saturday in the Springbok squad’s final preparation for the British and Irish Lions series, with the national squad putting in a performance that would have rapidly aged coach Jacques Nienaber as they showed a worrying lack of forward dominance and the backline was also not particularly clinical.

SA A led 14-0 at halftime through two tries against the run of play, but the second half was a tedious affair until the 66^th minute when flyhalf Johan Goosen sparked a sensational Bulls comeback.

The first try came after a superb break from a midfield ruck by Goosen, who then passed inside for impressive replacement scrumhalf Keegan Johannes to score. Just a minute later, Goosen, who last played for the Springboks five years ago, took on the defensive line on his own 22m line and his neat offload to Muller Uys saw the flank burst clear. Uys then went wide to fullback FC du Plessis, whose excellent kick infield found hooker Johan Grobbelaar up in support and he gathered and scored.

Goosen converted both tries before leaving the field, replaced by Chris Smith. With five minutes remaining, it was Smith who kicked a brilliant penalty from the halfway line to seal a win for the ages for the Bulls.

SA A bashed away at the Bulls line in the closing stages, but Smith and Nizaam Carr held up prop Vincent Koch over the line.

The SA A side spent most of the first half defending in their own half, but they did manage to break the chains twice, leading to tries in the 12^th and 38^th minutes.

First scrumhalf Cobus Reinach, probably the best player in the SA A team on the day, ran from a ruck, slipped through the defensive line, and then found fullback Aphelele Fassi running a good supporting line to score the try.

The second try came after a lovely kick into the corner by Fassi put SA A on attack. Prop Thomas du Toit was stopped just short of the line, but Wandisile Simelane was able to dive over an open tryline to score.

Simelane had earlier been yellow-carded for being miles offsides five metres from his line as SA A conceded a strong of penalties. But the Bulls were unable to capitalise on several first-half opportunities due to a lack of composure with the ball. They also conceded several turnovers.

But the SA A side just never had a decent platform as the young Bulls pack stepped up superbly. Their lineouts were especially poor.

The only players to have advanced their Springbok cause were Reinach, eighthman Kwagga Smith and Fassi, while Elton Jantjies had a solid game at flyhalf.

But it is now clear that a couple of injuries to the Springboks to key personnel and they will be vulnerable against the British and Irish Lions.

Scorers

SA A: Tries – Aphelele Fassi, Wandisile Simelane. Conversions – Elton Jantjies (2).

Bulls: Tries – Keegan Johannes, Johan Grobbelaar. Conversions – Johan Goosen (2). Penalty – Chris Smith.