Cape Town - Peter Karmis shot the first 59 in Sunshine Tour history to win the Lombard Insurance Classic by four strokes on the par-72 Royal Swazi Spa Golf Course on Sunday.

"I’m speechless right now, I don’t know what to say," he said. "I tried not to think about shooting 59, but when I got the eagle on five, I knew there was a special round happening."

His astonishing 13-under-par effort, with three eagles and seven birdies, gave him a four shot margin over the charging Jaco van Zyl, whose six-under 66 didn’t even get him within sniffing distance.

Andrew Curlewis shot a seven-under 65, and he stood on the practice green after Karmis eagled 12 and 13 glumly trying to calculate whether he was going to finish in the top five.

In the end, he shared fourth with Darryn Lloyd, Oliver Bekker, Clinton Whitelaw, Shaun Norris and Christiaan Basson.

Jbe’ Kruger, like Van Zyl, went six-under to finish third at 11-under and seven shots off the pace. "Not bad for an Engelsman," he said as he congratulated Karmis.

Playing partner Norris was in shock after signing for a 68 himself: "I played pretty decently, but that was just phenomenal. He never looked like faltering, and there were no fluke shots in the round either."

As the Karmis group got closer to the 18th, Norris and Josh Cunliffe started to feel the pressure a bit themselves: "As we were standing on the tee, we we’re shaking for him," said Norris, "just willing him to hit it onto the green."

With the adrenaline pumping, most golfers start thinking about how it would feel to shoot 59 and blow it. Karmis didn’t. "I tried to play it a little bit conservatively, because that’s the way I need to play in order to shoot a good round. In the end, I just hit it close so many times, that I could help scoring low," he said.

His par three on the last ensured his place in SA golfing history.

He had no idea how many putts he had. It was 23. It helped that he holed his approach on 13, which meant he didn’t have to putt there.

As the tension ratcheted up, he calmly slotted three birdies in a row on 15, 16 and 17. In fact, the birdie on 17 was so nearly a fourth eagle as his bunker shot slid past the hole by millimetres. And his birdie on 15 came from the only long putt of his round, at about 20 feet.

He calmly got his par on 18, and then the shakes set in as he walked to sign his card, and phone his family to share the news with them.

It wasn’t a bad wait for him to claim his second tournament win, after his first came in the Lombard Insurance Classic two years ago.

"I like this course," he said.

Scores:

198 - Peter Karmis 65 74 59
202 - Jaco Van Zyl 69 67 66
205 - Jbe' Kruger 70 69 66
206 - Andrew Curlewis 70 71 65, Darryn Lloyd 67 73 66, Oliver Bekker 67 73 66, Clinton Whitelaw 70 70 66,
Shaun Norris 71 67 68, Christiaan Basson 68 69 69
207 - Neil Schietekat 71 66 70, Bradford Vaughan 65 70 72
208 - Jaco Ahlers 69 70 69, Warren Abery 73 65 70, Keith Horne 65 73 70, Darren Fichardt 69 69 70
209 - Titch Moore 68 71 70, Brett Liddle 69 68 72, Chris Williams 71 65 73, Jean Hugo 67 69 73
210 - PH McIntyre 72 70 68, Desvonde Botes 70 70 70, Keenan Davidse 68 71 71, Ryan Cairns (ZIM) 70 69 71,
Josh Cunliffe 68 71 71
211 - Adilson da Silva (BRA) 72 68 71, Dean Lambert 70 69 72, Grant Muller 66 71 74,
Mark Murless 67 70 74
212 - Irvin Mazibuko 69 71 72, Alan Michell 69 71 72, Willie van der Merwe 69 71 72,
Trevor Fisher Jnr 71 68 73
213 - Divan van den Heever 68 72 73, TC Charamba (ZIM) 69 70 74
214 - Lindani Ndwandwe 72 70 72, Albert Pistorius 69 72 73, Stuart Clark (WAL) 69 72 73
215 - Neil Cheetham (ENG) 70 72 73, Chris Swanepoel 73 69 73, Darren Holder 72 69 74,
Alain Norris 73 67 75, Nic Henning 72 67 76
216 - Reggie Adams 71 71 74, Anil Shah (KEN) 68 74 74