Desert Classic offers interiors to understand the growth of women’s golf

It’s Monday at 6:58 a.m. at Papago Golf Course, a scenic municipal track in Phoenix – Tori Totlis is dancing. The sun hasn’t risen around the red rock ass, but a DJ stationed in the putter green is pumping Abba’s “Dance Queen” through the speakers, Totlis bent on the beat and his toes pounding on the cart path.

Directly in front of her, a group of 50 cars were ready to drive 100 women to their T-shirts to shoot guns at 7:30 a.m. In exactly six hours, at 1:30 pm, the second wave of 100 women would do the same. A week from now on, 200 will land on the property for the same precise experience.

What are these women doing here?

This is the fourth iteration of Desert Classic, a three-day female partner event that is filled with many other interactions and amenities in addition to performing three-round tournament golf, from a private, well-curated shopping night to daily gown themes to daily gown themes, with a guided preparatory range, preparatory training stretches, teaching clinics and night parties. Desert Classic is more than just a game. This is a experience. Totlis is the power behind it.

Phoenix is ​​pretty cool in March this particular Monday – 52 degrees – a steady 15 mph wind rips through the entire range. But the cold conditions did not suppress the enthusiasm of the morning waves of participants. What’s the theme of today’s outfit? “Western clothing.” The woman got a clear understanding of the task, playing sequins and edges from the parking lot, plaid buttons, Banners and denim jackets. A group of people even arrived with an inflatable cattle, tied to the roof of a golf cart.

As 7:30 approaches, Totlis picks up the microphone to gather the group for the previous announcement. But, before she put them on the cart, she had a request.

“What I’m asking is, for the next 15 to 20 seconds, you dance with me!” she shouted. “You shake it up because today will be the best day! Let’s go!”

The women shouted out loud as DJ prompted Pitbull’s opening chord “feel the moment” and the whole crowd emanated from the morning light. The “Hype” used by Totlis and her team to refer to the former prom party is an unadjustable competition tradition designed to help participants eliminate any lingering nerve energy. Totlis fives fives each while driving.

“A hype,” Toris said with a smile. “Eleven.”

All-female golf competition Not a novel concept, of course, but bringing 400 women together for leisure activities, each player costs $1,500 to $1,750 and sold out in minutes. Games like Desert Classic are usually limited to private club members – waves, super serious amateur championships or PGA division events. Totlis felt an opportunity.

“When I first went to the Invitational, I thought, ‘This is the funniest thing I’ve ever had,'” she said. “I just like the friendship, the side of the competition, the grand occasion and the situation. It’s the funniest thing I’ve been into as an adult, especially after having a baby.”

Totlis played tennis and softball since childhood, but did not meet a golf club until he was in his 20s. She was immediately fascinated and began to earnestly put her championships in the country club and Papago Women’s League. She is committed to being a better player and is now one of the best female amateurs in Southwest Arizona, winning Arizona Player of the Year in 2022.

Prior to 2019, Totlis had already obtained a kind of social media for fitness content when her family urged her to lean her golf ball. She did, recording the climaxes and lows of her own rounds and released game improvements and fitness tips with her coach. She also launched a podcast (“Time with Tori Totlis”), and her candid evaluation of her performances of competition and comfort in front of the camera quickly won her like-minded, golfer-crazy female followers. After dipping her toes into recruiting a small group of women for an overseas golf tour in 2021, Totlis decided to hold a big game in Papago, based on her game experience as a player. She told the course that she will sell 200 gigs in 2022, and she did it in less than a week.

“Nothing this will happen without social media,” Totlis said of the success of the Desert Classic. “All of my original Desert Classics found me through social media. It all started with me chatting on the camera.”

What is magic charm Desert classic? You could say that this is just a byproduct of the growth of women’s golf as a whole, and it’s the track record. But attendees will tell you that in large part they are because of Totlis herself and the community and atmosphere she fosters.

“Women are undernumbered in golf,” said Mary Berg, a participant who returned. “I’ve been playing for 33 years and have never seen anything like this before.

At the Desert Classics, if you play once, you will most likely be back again. Say it again. The fanatical rate of return ultimately prompted Totlis to add the second same game week in 2024 and this year. For the 2025 edition, all 400 attractions fill in 45 minutes with a waiting list.

“I think women from the golf industry are underestimated what they pay for the sport they like, whether it’s travel, courses, training gear or club,” Totlis said.

This year’s Desert Classic includes players from 37 states and four countries.

“I’ve never done a competition like this in my life,” said Carrie Grater, a participant in the third Desert Classic. “I’ve never been to anything like this.

Totlis agrees: “We are all like-minded people; women gather together to love the sport and want to have a good time.”

“And, we walk away with energy and drive to improve our game,” she added.

As a shotgun in the afternoon Wave finished its tour, and Desert Classic’s opening day ended, the women began to gather in the pavilion to drink, dinner and night entertainment: mechanical cows, live country music (violinist with stilts) and line dance. Still coming: Yacht Rock, clinic with top lecturers and master green dress themes. Totlis moves through the crowd, take pictures, greets players and chats. For her, seeing women gathered and having a great time was the most satisfying moment of the week.

In fact, she and her right hand are in these adventures – an enterprising and early Totlis Instagram follower Ashley Ibanez – currently has three matches and two retreats in the 2025 event schedule. And there is a chance to expand.

Ibanez smiled and said, “Whenever she calls me and says, ‘I have an idea,’ I’ll be a little nervous in the first place.”

“I think the channel for some kind of creative is in our future,” Totlis said. “It could be a year from now, and it could be two months now.

In the future, you can wait. Currently, the music is playing, and the woman is here, and someone needs to start dancing.