Anstiss (24) did not waste any time getting to his next port of call after the NZ Open last month but he also did not linger when he decided to come back to New Zealand because of Covid-19.
Once the NZ border closed, he decided to head home from the United States.
"When I heard that and the fact we were going into lockdown in a few days, I made a quick decision to fly back home next day," he said.
Anstiss had made a promising start to the year, tying for 24th in Queenstown at the NZ Open, and was set to head to Mexico for the Latin American Tour.
"After the NZ Open finished on the Sunday I flew to Auckland then on to Mexico next day for the first event on the PGA Latin America Tour, the Estrella del Mar Open. The scoring was red hot that week with the cut at seven under, being the lowest ever on that tour."
Anstiss comfortably made the cut and played well with 67,67,68,71 to finish 15 under, in a tie for 35th. The winner scored an amazing 29 under.
"Following that I flew to the US to compete in the Coke Dr Pepper Open , an All Pro Tour event in Alexandria, Louisiana. It was played on two courses, Bayou and Oakwing. I scored 67, 71 to make the cut on 6 under. We then got the news the Players Champs had been cancelled plus PGA events for the next four weeks, meaning no more Latin American Tour. However, the All Pro Tour were determined to finish their event and I scored 67, 66 to finish on 17 under and in a tie for 11th.
"My plan was to play the next week on the All Pro Tour before heading to Argentina for three events in April on the LA tour. However, the APT event was cancelled so suddenly there was nothing to play in. I hung around in Louisiana for a few days playing golf with some of my old team-mates from my college days before the NZ border closure news ended that."
Anstiss is now back in Queenstown and, like all of us, making the best of his time in lockdown.
"I have now been home three weeks and have set up a make-do driving range in my garage, hitting balls off a range mat into a few blankets. I am really looking forward to getting back out to the golf course and hoping the world can get back to some normality soon and hopefully we can play some tournaments later in the year."
— Neville Idour with additional reporting by Steve Hepburn
