Cassie Porter produced the round of her young career at Kooyonga Golf Club on Sunday, firing a stunning course-record 10-under-par 62 that nearly delivered one of the great comebacks in Women’s Australian Open history.

Starting the final round nine shots off the lead, Porter unleashed a breathtaking display of attacking golf to storm up the leaderboard and set the clubhouse target at 10-under-par.

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For a time, it looked like the 22-year-old Queenslander might pull off the unthinkable. Instead, she had to settle for a share of second alongside France’s Agathe Laisné – a result that still felt like a defining moment for one of Australian golf’s brightest emerging talents.

“I’m kind of speechless right now, to be honest,” Porter said after the round when asked to describe her performance.

“It was just really nice for everything to come together. I know as professional golfers and amateur golfers and everyone that just plays golf dreams of a day that everything just works. And I’m very fortunate that today was that day.”

While eventual champion Hannah Green battled the pressure of leading the national championship, Porter was quietly piecing together something special. Birdies began to fall early – and then they simply kept coming.

The idea of a miracle charge had initially been little more than a joke.

“This morning my boyfriend just said, ‘Hey, well you’re not out of it if you shoot 10-under,’” Porter said. “So, obviously that’s in the back of your mind as a joke, but then I started holing some putts and then I kept holing (more) putts and then I was, like, ‘Oh wow, maybe I’m two behind now.’”

As the round gathered momentum, the possibility of winning Australia’s national championship suddenly felt real.

“I think maybe down the 18th I said to Blandy, ‘Hey look, if we get a birdie here, we’ve a good chance we have to hang around,’” she said. “So, yeah, maybe down the 18th, but I wasn’t really thinking about it.”

Porter rolled in yet another birdie putt at the last to cap the 62, setting the clubhouse target and forcing the leaders to respond. With around an hour to wait while the final groups finished, she was left in limbo – part hopeful, part exhausted after the round of her life.

“I’m going to go have something to eat because I’m starving,” she said with a laugh. “But then maybe do some putting, a couple of drives, see what happens.”

Ultimately Green would hold her nerve to claim the title by a single stroke, but Porter’s electrifying charge ensured a small part of Sunday in Adelaide belonged to the young challenger as it did the champion.