The women’s Interstate Teams Championship has instigated an impromptu preliminary final.
With one round to play, only a strange cosmic shift will prevent Victoria from playing in Thursday’s final on Royal Melbourne’s East Course.
But their rival will be determined by a final-round shootout tomorrow between Western Australia and Queensland, the Victorians’ victims on a dramatic day two.
WA sits second only on matches won over Queensland, but a win for either on Wednesday morning will seal a final berth.
For Victoria to miss out, the chasing states would have to halve their contest and the hosts lose 1-4 or worse to South Australia.
It was a brilliant day for Victoria, firstly coming from the clouds to pinch its match against Queensland in the morning, then rolling over the previously unbeaten WA 4-1 in the afternoon.
While all the Victorians shone, arguably the most impressive was the white-hot Julienne Soo.
Soo, 18, has been in stellar form since completing her high school studies, but was staring down the barrel when Australia’s top-ranked amateur Hannah Green had forged a 2-up lead midway through the clash of the 2015 Karrie Webb Series scholarship holders.
But remarkably Soo, from nearby Woodlands, poured in five consecutive birdies from the 10th hole to eventually run out a 2&1 winner in their No.1 match.
Earlier, skipper Jo Charlton sealed victory when she, too, played immaculate golf to beat Hayley Bettencourt by the same margin.
Hira Naveed edged out Olivia Kline 1-up to give WA its only point, with Grace Daniell and Bianca Ling strong winners in the No.4 and No.5 matches respectively.
Elsewhere on the course, New South Wales’ week went from bad to worse when it fell to fierce rival Queensland 3-2.
It came just hours after the Blues, one of the title favourites before the tournament, were stunned by South Australia in the morning matches and amazingly left them 0.5 of a possible four points and in fifth place.
South Australia capped its great day with a 5-0 whitewash of Tasmania in the afternoon matches, leaving the Tassie women without a point in sixth place.