A one-time starter at the 2011 NSW PGA Championship in Wollongong, Anasta will this week serve as tournament host when the second event in The Players Series tees off at Bonnie Doon Golf Club in Sydney.

Now actively involved in golf through his sports management company Searoo Sports, Anasta’s passion for the game is well known. Less well known is the twist of fate that saw him give up golf and return to rugby league mid-season in 1998 and start his meteoric rise towards stardom.

The nephew of South Sydney legend George Piggins, Anasta had decided at age 15 to channel all of his considerable sporting talent into golf, mixing it on a regular basis with future tour players in James Nitties, Ewan Porter and Aron Price.

In 1998 he lost a playoff to Price in a Jack Newton Junior Golf event at Bondi Golf Club only to answer an SOS from the coach of the Rabbitohs’ SG Ball team that would change his life forever.

“I was playing league, union, cricket, golf, you name it, but golf was my absolute favourite and I was really passionate about it,” says Anasta, who would go on to play 288 first grade games and represent both NSW and Australia.

“I gave up league when I was 15 and focused on golf and wanted to put all my energy into that and give it a good crack.

“A few months into the year the fullback of the South Sydney SG Ball team went down with an injury and the coach, Danny Loftus, rang me and said they needed me for the last six games of the year.

“We went on to win the grand final, I got a contract and that was it. I didn’t play golf for basically the next 10 years.

“It was pretty crazy.”

Given his passion for golf and his background in elite-level sport, Anasta founded Searoo Sports with Justin Caines in 2018 with a view to guiding young golf professionals through the formative stages of their careers.

Aron Price is now part of the Searoo team based in America as Anasta offers a sense of team within a sport that can be solitary and lonely at times.

“Golf’s a bit of a gamble,” says Anasta of the difference between the two sports. “You actually don’t know if you’re going to make it until you take that leap.

“There’s not much security there until you make the transition and you are successful at it.

“You’re playing for your pay cheque every week but you don’t have the support network that team sports have.

“Golfers have mates on tour but it can be a really lonely place and I understood that because I’d been around it.

“I try to put a team environment around the players so that they’ve got someone they can lean on. A lot of golfers don’t want that, but I provide it so if they do want it it’s available to them.

“If they need a trainer, if they need a mental coach, if they need some money I’ll try and get them some sponsorship and leverage my position with my contacts so they can have the money they need to get to where they want to get to without all the stress and pressure.

“That’s what I love the most about it, being a mentor and trying to help these guys win tournaments and achieve their hopes and dreams.”

Dimi Papadatos, Aaron Wilkin, Anthony Quayle, Matt Stieger, Ryan Chisnall, Ben Eccles and Kiwi Ben Campbell are all currently on the Searoo books and Anasta intends to use this week’s TPS event to scout female players looking to join his team.

“I’m not one of those guys like Jerry Maguire who goes out to try and snap all the talent up,” says Anasta. “It’s more a relationship thing and if we can help that’s amazing.

“I do love watching the women play and I’d love to represent some of Australia’s best female golfers. I’ll be trying to do that over the next couple of years for sure.

“I hadn’t had much to do with the WPGA or the female golfers but now I do with this event and also through meeting the likes of Steph Kyriacou, Becky Kay and Su Oh.

“I’ve always looked up to Hannah Green, she’s amazing, so definitely want to get a couple of the girls on board.”

As for his own golf, Anasta is gradually trying to make the transition from professional hopeful to happy hacker.

“I wish I’d never ever reached the level that I had because now I’m so far from it that I find it hard,” says Anasta, 15 seasons of first grade rugby league taking a heavy toll on his body and limiting his ability to practice.

“I would have tried to tee it up this week if I was playing like I used to but I don’t think I ever will.

“I’ve come to terms with it the past six months but when you’re playing off +2 or +3 as a young fella and then you’re struggling to shoot 80, it does your head in a lot.

“I’ve accepted that I’ll never be that player ever again and that to me is hoping that I can enjoy playing golf without getting frustrated.”