Ken Borland

Mitchell van Buuren could have followed in the footsteps of his older cousin Graeme and become an émigré to the United Kingdom, but the 24-year-old batsman has decided to stick it out in South Africa and on Friday he was the saviour of the Central Gauteng Lions side in their crucial final round 4-Day Domestic Series fixture against the Northerns Titans in Centurion.

The Lions, frontrunners in the four-day competition for so long, are trying to hold off strong late challenges from Northerns as well as the Eastern Province Warriors, and they were in early trouble at SuperSport Park as they slumped to 79/4.

That was when Van Buuren came to the crease and he showed impressive discipline and composure even as the Lions slid further into the mire on 118/6. Sisanda Magala then joined him and the burly Proteas white-ball player was able to show his value with the bat as he fought hard for nearly two-and-a-half hours, playing some lovely strokes in his 61 and adding a vital 130 for the seventh wicket with Van Buuren.

With off-spinner Simon Harmer (31-7-84-3) wrapping up the tail, the Lions were bowled out for 270 on the stroke of stumps, with Van Buuren finishing unbeaten on a highly-responsible 103, which included 10 fours and three sixes.

Seamer Aya Gqamane was the pick of the Northerns bowlers, taking 3/45 in 16 overs, his victims being the star trio of Josh Richards (33), Ryan Rickelton (24) and Magala. Lizaad Williams was also slippery, taking 2/42 in 22 overs.

The Warriors, meanwhile, were in firm control of their match against the Free State Knights in Bloemfontein until the hosts were lifted to a tolerable 198/7 by a marvellous 107 not out by Patrick Botha.

The EP pacemen, Tiaan van Vuuren (14-4-32-3), Akhona Mnyaka (12-1-49-2) and Mthiwekhaya Nabe (11-1-35-2) quickly ripped through the Knights top-order, with only Raynard van Tonder (34) showing much resistance.

Coming in at 39/4, Botha shared successive partnerships of 54 with Van Tonder and 72 with Migael Pretorious (17). It lifted the mood in a Knights camp that is missing several key players and has been further rocked by the resignation of Allan Donald as coach. The Proteas great is taking up a role as bowling coach of Bangladesh.

Scores in brief for other games

Western Province 332/4 (Jonathan Bird 128, Yaseen Vallie 44, Gavin Kaplan 73, Daniel Smith 46*; Delano Potgieter 2/56) v North-West.

KZN Dolphins 272/5 (Grant Roelofsen 49, Keegan Petersen 115*, Andile Phehlukwayo 69*; Shaun von Berg 3/81) v Boland Rocks.

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.