What it’s like behind the scenes at Arizona’s biggest women’s golf event

What is it like to host 200 women in a three-day, partner golf event, and then do it all again with a new group of 200 a week later?

In short: It’s a lot of work — with plenty of drama in between.

The behind-the-scenes action of the biggest women-only golf tournament in Arizona 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 stage the 5th annual Desert Classic at Papago Golf Club in Phoenix, Ariz.

Episode 1 introduces viewers to Totlis and her mission: staging a fun yet still competitive multi-day tournament for recreational players. As a former tennis and softball player who didn’t start playing golf until her 20s, Totlis was immediately enamored with the tournament environments she experienced at country club events. Why couldn’t that same experience be offered at the recreational level? In 2022, Totlis decided to do just that, and leaned 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 participants enjoy a thoughtfully curated experience that includes on-site shopping, daily dress themes, guided pre-round stretching sessions, instructional clinics and nightly parties. The tournament proved so popular that Totlis added a second week with an identical itinerary in 2024, and that field sold out, too.

To celebrate the tournament’s fifth year, Totlis turned to a Phoenix-based all-female production crew from Good Vibe Studios to document the experience.

“When you’re hosting a big tournament like this, you really have to be on the whole time,” Totlis said. “I thought that this series would bring some insight as to what’s going on when we’re not interacting with the players, like how we’re getting through the day. It’s a marathon, it’s four days that are just nonstop 16-hour days, 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 also 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 that 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 documentary’s six episodes 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 view new episodes.

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