What’s it like to host 200 women at a three-day partner golf event, and then do it all over again with a new group of 200 a week later?
In short: it is one LOT of work – with lots of drama in between.
The behind-the-scenes action at Arizona’s largest women’s-only golf tournament is the subject of a new six-episode documentary that launched today on YouTube. The Making of the Desert Classic follows tournament founder Tori Totlis and her team as they prepare to host the 5th annual Desert Classic in Papago Golf Club in Phoenix, Ariz.
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Want an inside look at the growth of women’s golf? Spend a day at the Desert Classic
Jessica Marksbury
Episode 1 introduces viewers to Totlis and her mission: organizing a fun, yet competitive, multi-day tournament for recreational players. As a former tennis and softball player who didn’t start playing golf until her 20s, Totlis immediately fell in love with the tournament settings she experienced at country club events. Why can’t the same experience be offered at the recreational level? In 2022, Totlis decided to do just that and relied on her growing social media following to sell out a 200-player tournament in less than a week. The Desert Classic was born.
In addition to golf, Desert Classic attendees enjoy a carefully curated experience that includes on-site shopping, daily dressage themes, pre-round guided sessions, teaching clinics and nightly parties. The tour proved so popular that Totlis added a second week with an identical itinerary in 2024, and that field also sold out.
To celebrate the tour’s fifth year, Totlis tapped an all-female Phoenix-based production team from Good Vibe Studios to document the experience.
“When you’re hosting a big tournament like this, you really have to be.” IN all the time,” Totlis said. “I thought this series would bring some insight into what’s going on when we’re not interacting with the players, like how we’re spending our day. It’s a marathon, it’s four days that are just 16-hour days non-stop and our team really works 20 hours.
“So I just thought it would be interesting to see how much it really takes to throw this, but at the same time, how much fun we have doing it,” she continued. “There’s a lot of YouTube series out there, but I just think this tournament is unique. The age group is unique, with women flying in from all over the country. So I’m excited about it.”
The six episodes of the documentary will drop over the next two weeks, with two new episodes becoming available every Thursday. You can watch Episode 1 below or visit Totlis YouTube page on Thursdays to watch new episodes.
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