Not even an 18-month layoff with a back injury could quell Queenslander Cassie Porter’s trajectory towards joining the LPGA Tour in 2025
My first memory of golf is taking my sketchbook and some colouring-in pencils and sitting in the cart drawing while Mum and Dad played. I really love drawing. I read quite a bit and I draw the characters that I read. What they look like in my head, I put down on paper. The book wants you to perceive something like it is, but then you might imagine it differently and I just put that on paper.
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I don’t think I would ever design a golf course. I’ve tried to convince myself and tried to draw a golf course, but I just don’t really have any interest in that. If I really love the look of a hole, I’m more likely to paint that. I think the creativity kind of comes out in how I play rather than being artistic with it. Being able to see shots that some people might not see and just creating different shots.
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If I wasn’t playing professional golf, I’d 120,000-percent be a tennis professional. I love it so much. From the ages of probably 6 to 11, I did so much. I was playing tennis maybe two or three times a week, I was swimming three times a week, I was dancing twice a week. I played volleyball, I played tee-ball and then I played golf after that. Golf just became something that I gravitated towards because I was good at it and I really enjoyed it. I got to play it with my parents, but I could also play with my friends. I don’t really remember choosing; it was kind of a natural progression.
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I learned my competitive streak from tennis. Playing tennis now is hilarious because, on the course, I would like to say I’m pretty chilled. On the tennis court, I have such a temper. It really gets on my nerves.
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We were sitting around the dinner table one night with some friends and someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I was 12 and I said I wanted to be No.1 in the world and playing on the LPGA. I look at 12-year-old Cassie and I’m like, Hey, very big aspirations, darling.
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I turned pro when I was 19 and it did happen quite quickly. I had an injury at the start of 2020 and didn’t play for 18 months. I came back in July 2021, won three tournaments and I turned pro in December that year.
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It was a pretty bold decision, I won’t lie. I didn’t play for 18 months, suddenly I was playing pain-free and straight out the box, I wanted to turn pro. My coach Dan Morrison and I were pretty much the only ones in our whole circle that were like, Let’s do it.
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I was away from my parents and family at that time. I was house-sitting for my sister and I went down to the beach and I’m pretty sure I just cried for four hours. I knew that if I turned professional then that there was no going back after that. It was kind of that cliff that once you take that step, if you have the right mindset, you’re not going to fall, you’re going to fly.
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Looking back, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that I could do it or not, it was just taking that step. It’s scary for anybody, but I’m glad I did it earlier. As much as a lot of people like to wait and play a lot of amateur events, jumping in the deep end has been the way I’ve lived my life. And I love proving people wrong.
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Playing on Epson Tour the past two years has made me realise that I’m so much more resilient than I thought I was. It’s been really, really tough the past two years, on my body and on myself and just different things. I’ve definitely learned a lot about myself. Being able to finish my second year of being in a tough spot with an LPGA Tour card on the line kind of puts a cherry on the top. And a bit of a kick in the guts to be like, Hey, look, you can do this. You’re resilient.
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The tournament I’m really excited for is the Evian Championship. My whole family’s coming to France. I’ve watched that on TV for so many years, and I am so excited to be able to go. Obviously, I still have to play my way into that, but to have the opportunity to play is really awesome.
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I was in Year 12 and woke up one day and I couldn’t walk. That was scary because my whole life I’ve been really sporty, I was always active. We went on this journey for 12 months where I had close to 16 MRIs and every doctor I saw told me something different. I was just getting worse. I was in so much pain and I was being told that I would never play golf again. I was like, That’s just not it. That’s not where my journey ends. I changed my physio and saw a few doctors that I really wanted to see and within six weeks I was back playing, pain-free.
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Not being able to play for 18 months made me realise how much I love the game and how much I love competing. I’m not doing it for the reasons that I thought I was doing it. I’m doing it because I actually enjoy it. It gave me a different perspective. People say, “You look so happy out on the course, even when you’re playing bad.” I’m like, “Yeah, I’m just grateful to be out here.”
Main photo: Andy Cheung/getty images
