Dean Netzel

A Glimpse Into How I Train — and Why It's Built Around Me, Not a Blueprint.... Every professional golfer trains. But not every professional golfer trains like an athlete. That distinction matters more than most people realize — and it's something my long-time performance coach, Carmen Del Mastro, and I have built the foundation of my physical development around. Our approach isn't reactive. It's deeply strategic. We know which areas of my body need consistent work year-round, which areas simply need to be monitored, what gets aggravated under load, and — most importantly — how to solve root issues before they ever have the chance to become disruptions. That last part is where most training programs fail. They treat symptoms. We go upstream. One of the principles that shapes our entire training calendar is understanding the demands golf already places on the body. During peak competitive stretches, we deliberately pull back on rotational work — not because it isn't valuable, but because we're already rotating hundreds of times per day on the course and on the range. Overloading that pattern during high-competition periods is a fast road to breakdown. That work gets saved for the off-season and the lower points of the calendar year, when the body can actually absorb and adapt to it. What we train all year, without exception, is strength. The volume cycles — it rises and falls depending on where we are in the season — but the commitment to building and maintaining a strong physical foundation never stops. And then there's mobility. It's become one of my highest attributes as an athlete, something I genuinely take pride in. The combination of real strength and real mobility is rare, and it opens up a range of movement that directly translates to what I'm able to do with a club in my hands. But here's the deeper truth underneath all of it: none of this works if you're copying someone else's program. The most important thing any athlete can do is learn their own body — not compare it to a teammate's, not default to what's trending, not follow a generic protocol designed for the average. Your body has its own tolerances, its own weaknesses, its own ceiling. Understanding those things — honestly and specifically — is what determines how hard you can push in practice, how much you can demand of yourself in competition, and how far you can actually go. That's the work. And it never really stops. Curious about how I build my performance team, or how I structure training around a professional golf schedule? Drop your questions!

26 Apr

Before the Breakthrough: The Space That Shapes Us

31 Mar