Want an inside look at the growth of women’s golf? Spend a day at the Desert Classic

It’s 6:58 a.m. on a Monday at Papago Golf Course — a scenic municipal track in Phoenix — and Tori Totlis is dancing. The sun has yet to rise over the surrounding red-rock buttes, but a DJ stationed just off the putting green is pumping Abba’s “Dancing Queen” through the speakers, and Totlis is grooving to the beat, toes tapping on the cart path.

Directly in front of her, a line of 50 carts stands ready to ferry 100 women to their tees in time for a 7:30 a.m. shotgun start. In exactly six hours, at 1:30 p.m., a second wave of 100 women will do the same thing. And one week from now, 200 more will descend upon the property for the same exact experience.

What in the world are these women doing here?

This is the fourth iteration of the Desert Classic, a three-day, women’s-only partner event that, in addition to staging three rounds of tournament golf, is packed with a multitude of other engagements and amenities, from a private, curated shopping night to daily dress themes, guided pre-round stretching sessions, instructional clinics and nightly parties. The Desert Classic isn’t a mere tournament; it’s an experience. And Totlis is the force behind it all.

This particular Monday is unseasonably cool — 52 degrees — for Phoenix in March, and a steady 15-mph wind is whipping across the range. But the chilly conditions can’t dampen the enthusiasm of the morning wave of participants. Today’s dress theme? “Western wear.” And the women clearly understand the assignment, streaming in from the parking lot in sequins and fringe, plaid button-ups, bandannas and denim jackets. One group even arrives with an inflatable cow in tow, which they strapped to the roof of their golf cart.

As 7:30 approaches, Totlis picks up the microphone to gather the group for pre-round announcements. But before she cuts them loose in their carts, she has one request.

“All I ask is that for the next 15 to 20 seconds, you dance with me!” she shouts. “You shake it out, because today is gonna be the most fabulous day! Let’s go!”

The women whoop as the DJ cues up the opening chords of Pitbull’s “Feel This Moment,” and the entire crowd boogies down in the early-morning light. “Hype”— the term Totlis and her team use to refer to the pre-round dance party — is a nonnegotiable tournament tradition, meant to help the participants dispel any lingering nervous energy. As the women board their carts and head to their respective tees, Totlis high-fives each one as they drive by.

“One hype session down,” Totlis says with a smile. “Eleven to go.”

All-female golf tournaments certainly aren’t a novel concept, but bringing 400 women together for a recreational event at a cost of $1,500 to $1,750 per player — and selling out in minutes — certainly is. Tournaments like the Desert Classic are generally confined to private club member-guests, ultra-serious amateur championships or PGA sectional events. And Totlis sensed an opportunity.

“When I played an invitational for the first time, I was like, ‘This is the most fun I’ve ever had,’ ” she says over coffee a few weeks earlier. “I just loved the camaraderie of it, the competition side of it, the pomp and circumstance of it all. It was the most fun I’ve had as an adult, especially after having kids.”

Totlis grew up playing tennis and softball but didn’t touch a golf club until she was in her mid-20s. She got hooked immediately and started teeing it up in earnest, joining a country club and the women’s league at Papago. She devoted herself to becoming a better player and is now one of the best female amateurs in Arizona’s Southwest section, winning Arizona Player of the Year in 2022. She also qualified for the 2021 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship, where she made it to match play.

Prior to 2019, Totlis had already acquired a modest social media following with fitness content when a family member urged her to lean into golf. She did, documenting the highs and lows of her rounds and releasing game-improvement and fitness tips with her instructor. She launched a podcast (“T-Time with Tori Totlis”) as well, and her candid assessments of her tournament performance and comfort in front of the camera quickly gained her a legion of like-minded, golf-crazed female followers. After dipping her toe into recruiting small groups of women to join an overseas golf trip in 2021, Totlis decided to push for a big event at Papago, modeled after the tournament experiences she had relished as a player. She told the course she would sell out a 200-player event in 2022, and she did, in less than a week.

“None of this happens without social media,” Totlis says of the Desert Classic’s success. “All my players from the initial Desert Classic found me through social media. It all started with me talking into my camera.”

What is the magic allure of the Desert Classic? You could argue it’s simply a by-product of the growth of women’s golf as a whole, which is on a record trajectory. But attendees will tell you that they come largely because of Totlis herself, and the community and atmosphere that she has cultivated.

“Women have been underrepresented in golf for a long time,” says returning participant Mary Berg. “I’ve been playing for 33 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this. You come here, and Tori makes it so easy and welcoming for every level of the game. It’s golf and it’s fun, but it’s also a huge party.”

At the Desert Classic, if you play once, you’re likely to come back again. And again. The rabid return rate is ultimately what prompted Totlis to add a second identical tournament week in 2024 and this year too. For the 2025 edition, all 400 spots filled in 45 minutes, with a wait list.

“I think women are underestimated in the golf industry in terms of the money they’ll pay to invest in the sport that they love, whether it’s travel or lessons or training gear or clubs,” Totlis says.

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

“I’d never done a tournament like this before in my life,” says third-time Desert Classic participant Carrie Grater. “I’d never traveled to do anything like this. And now, it’s in my blood. I cannot wait to get back here again the next year. The friendships and camaraderie are second to none.”

Totlis agrees: “We are all like-minded individuals; women coming together who love this sport and who want to have a good time.”

“And,” she adds, “we’re walking away energized and motivated to improve our games.”

As the afternoon shotgun wave finishes its rounds and the Desert Classic’s opening day winds down, the women begin to gather on the pavilion for drinks, dinner and the night’s entertainment: a mechanical bull, live country music (complete with a violinist on stilts) and line dancing. Still to come: yacht rock, clinics with top instructors and a Masters-green dress theme. Totlis moves through the crowd, taking photos, greeting players and chatting. Seeing the women gathered and having a great time is, for her, the most gratifying moment of the week.

So gratifying, in fact, that she and her right hand in these ventures — an enterprising and early Totlis Instagram follower named Ashley Ibanez — currently have three tournaments and two retreats on their 2025 event schedule. And there’s an opportunity to expand.

“Whenever she calls me and says, ‘I have an idea,’ I get a little nervous first,” Ibanez says with a laugh.

“Some kind of creative outlet, I think, is in our future,” Totlis says. “It might be a year from now, it might be two months from now. But I do feel like something else is on the horizon.”

The future, that can wait. Right now, music is playing, the women are here and someone needs to start the dancing.