Private Lessons

Jim Waldron returns to in-person teaching at Quail Valley Golf Course near Portland, Oregon in May 2022. Until then he will continue working with students exclusively in real-time via webcam. Remote lessons on full swing mechanics, short game, putting and mental game via Facetime, Duo, Hangouts, etc. can be done either indoors in front of your computer webcam, or on the practice range using your smartphone webcam app. Instruction is customized to meet individual needs.

For more on real-time online Golf Swing , Short Game, Mental Game instruction, click here.
For more on the real-time online Waldron Yips Cure Program, click here.

Please email or call our office at 503-997-2063 for more information.

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All golf lessons are personally instructed by Master Teacher Jim Waldron, four-time Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher nominee and Top Regional Teacher (Northwest).

Private lessons are offered at the following locations:

For our new students we require a minimum of four hours of lessons for golfers with handicaps of 12 or higher (average score of 84 or more) and a two hour minimum for golfers with handicaps of less than 12.

Jim Waldron's Private Lesson Teaching Philosophy

NEW STUDENT PHONE INTERVIEW

We offer a complimentary 15 minute phone interview to all serious prospective new students who would like to talk with Jim Waldron about how his teaching system can help them to improve their games. Jim can answer any questions you may have about his private lesson programs at that time. He will also interview you to discover your primary goals for taking golf instruction, current skill level and average golf score, dominant learning style, athletic ability level and other important information about you and your game.

PRIVATE LESSON CONTENT

All of our private lessons begin with an evaluation of your current golf swing, short game technique or putting stroke. The next step is to show you where you are missing one or more of the all important fundamentals. We also will identify one or more Fatal Flaws that must be addressed right away in order for the student to start to see some immediate improvement. We end the lesson with a review of the important points covered and a home and range practice plan is created. We expect the student to commit to and follow that practice plan during the three to six weeks time interval until the next lesson.

We utilize high speed digital video cameras for slow motion analysis of student's golf swings as well as several uniquely effective training aids. Each student is also tested to determine their level of flexibility so that we can design a golf swing improvement program that will take into account the student's body type and range of motion limitations. For inflexible golfers, we offer a golf swing flexibility training program designed by Jim Waldron to increase range of motion in the most important body parts used in the golf swing.

HOW TO BOOK YOUR PRIVATE LESSON

Please call our office at 503-997-2063, or email us to make a private lesson appointment with Jim Waldron.  Lesson time slots are limited and fill up quickly in the busy summer golf season so we highly recommend booking your lesson early. Normally our lesson schedule is full two weeks out though we can sometimes fit you in sooner.  We require payment in advance for all of our private lessons. Payment is due by credit card at the time the lesson appointment is made. Visa or Mastercard are accepted.

JUNIOR GOLFERS

Jim Waldron works with junior golfers age eight or older. Junior lesson rates: 10% off of our adult lesson rates.

Private Lessons - Portland, Oregon

The lesson season in our home location of Portland, Oregon runs from mid-May to late October at Quail Valley Golf Course. All lessons are taught by Jim Waldron. For our new students we require a minimum of four hours of lessons for golfers with handicaps of 12 or higher (average score of 84 or more) and a two hour minimum for golfers with handicaps of less than 12.

PRIVATE LESSON OPTIONS

One hour lesson: $200
90 minute lesson: $285   
Two hour lesson: $375

Two person rate: $275/hour
Juniors ages 8-17 - 10% discount

DISCOUNTED LESSON SERIES RATES

Most of our private lesson students are enrolled in a series of one-hour lessons. A one hour lesson every three to four weeks throughout the summer golf season is the most effective way to learn and we can offer a lower hourly rate to these highly committed golf students. Lesson series must be completed within one year of enrollment.

Four hours of private lessons - $765
Seven hours - $1,315
Ten hours - $1,850
Juniors ages 8-17 - 10% discount

PLAYING LESSONS

On course demonstration of effective course management, pre-shot routine and shot selection strategies, risk/ reward analysis and feedback on the student's playing strategies. Managing your thoughts and emotions in that critical time between shots is also covered. Our students rave about our playing lessons! This is one of the fastest ways to significantly lower your golf scores in the shortest possible time. If you are now shooting an average score of 85-100, you can expect to lower your scores by five to ten shots almost immediately from the information you will learn about in this lesson. Typical playing lessons run 90 minutes to 2 hours.

Lesson rates above apply.

MENTAL GAME INSTRUCTION

Learn how to master the mental game and breakthrough to a higher level of golf performance from one of the nation's foremost golf mental game instructors. Jim is a certified practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Patterning, the most effective method of sports performance enhancement as well as a longtime student and teacher of Eastern concentration and meditation techniques, and a certified hypno-therapist. Confidence-building, concentration training, handling pressure effectively, and staying focused and in control of your thoughts and emotions while playing golf are just a few of the topics covered in our mental game private lesson program. Learn a professional level preshot routine and discover true shotmaking consistency.
New students:

Lesson rates above apply.

HOW TO BOOK YOUR PRIVATE LESSON

Please call our office at 1-503-997-2063 or email us to make a private lesson appointment with Jim Waldron. Please do not call the pro shop at Quail Valley to make a lesson reservation. All reservations must come through our office.

Lesson time slots are limited and fill up quickly in the busy summer golf season so we highly recommend booking your lesson early.  Normally our lesson schedule is full two weeks out though we can sometimes fit you in sooner.

We require payment in advance for all of our private lessons. Payment is due by credit card at the time the lesson appointment is made. Visa or Mastercard are accepted.

LESSON PAYMENT AND CANCELLATION POLICY:  If you must cancel your lesson, please do so within a minimum of seven days of your lesson appointment so that we will have the opportunity to schedule a replacement student into your cancelled time slot. No refunds will be issued for students who fail to show up for their scheduled lesson or for cancellations received within seven days of the lesson appointment.

WEATHER CANCELLATIONS: Occasionally our students call us on the day of a scheduled lesson to cancel due to bad weather. It may be raining hard in their section of the Portland metro area but at Quail Valley Golf Course the weather is fine. We rarely need to cancel our scheduled lesson days due to bad weather anymore since we now have two covered instruction areas at Quail Valley Golf Course. In the rare case of really nasty weather, we will make the call, if needed, to cancel the day's lessons due to bad weather and we will contact each of our scheduled students the night before or the morning of the lesson day to inform them of this. If we do not call you to cancel due to bad weather, please assume that the weather is fine at the golf course, and we expect you to show up as planned.

Private Lessons - Hawaii

Lessons are held at the practice range of Kahuku Golf Course, on the North Shore of Oahu. Jim is available for instruction in Hawaii March 1 - April 3 and November 3-22, 2023.

Kama’aina: $175/hour 
Visitors: $215/hour 
Juniors: 10% discount

Jim Waldron's Private Lesson Teaching Philosophy

Acquiring a good golf swing or short game technique is a lot like learning to play a musical instrument. Solid grounding in proven fundamentals, dedication, practice and lessons from a competent instructor are the keys to continued improvement and success. Yet many golfers spend years searching for the "secret" and wonder why they never improve. Traditional instruction has sometimes supported this futile search for a short cut to mastering the golf swing by offering infrequent half-hour lessons consisting primarily of "swing tips" unrelated to the core fundamentals of the game.

Fellow golfers - the "try this, try that" approach, quick-fixes, swing "tips", and a half-hour "band-aid" type of lesson once a year just won't get the job done. Most golfers experience little or no permanent improvement from this approach. Motor skills learning research and our teaching experience confirm that a systematic, step-by-step approach to learning golf swing fundamentals is the easiest, fastest and most effective way to achieve permanent improvement. This requires a commitment on the part of the student to a program of ongoing instruction and to a personal practice program. Both are necessary in order to achieve your goals of better shotmaking and lower scores.

This does not mean you must practice five hours a day for years before you finally master the swing! It does mean following a consistent model for your learning, practice and play. Consistency breeds positive results. Inconsistency and continuing an endless pursuit of new swing tips breeds inconsistent results, confusion and frustration. Practicing at home without a ball (primarily doing slow motion drills in front of a mirror) for as little as twenty minutes a day will produce steady and permanent improvement in your golf swing. Of course, you will still need to visit the practice range at least once a week as well.

We use two very different learning strategies in our private lesson programs. First, Fundamental based instruction, which is by far the most effective way to achieve long term permanent improvement. This means knowing what to do - a law of the golf swing for example - as opposed to "what am I doing wrong?" approach. This approach works especially well for mid to high handicap golfers with poor full swing mechanics. It does however require a strong commitment on the part of the student to the changes agreed upon and especially to the practice plan that will enable the student to achieve permanent mastery of that skill over time.

Swing Corrective instruction is the opposite approach. It is based on the notion that you first remove that one really destructive swing flaw that is sabotaging your golf swing. It usually results in faster improvement, at least in the short term, but can when used alone as most traditional golf teachers do, may fail to result in long-term permanent improvement, especially for mid to high handicap players. Which method we use will depend primarily on the student's current skill level.

Swing Corrective instruction is almost always our starting point when working with advanced players (single digit handicaps). This is more a matter of "tweaking" a fundamentally sound golf swing and is very effective in a short amount of time. For mid to high handicap golfers, we usually start with the Fundamental approach but almost always include some time devoted to Fatal Flaw elimination as well - more of a blended approach. We have found that this blended approach is the most effective way for our students to start to see some degree of immediate improvement while also laying the foundation for long term, permanent improvement. Most traditional golf teachers use the Swing approach almost exclusively, which sometimes can result in little or no long term improvement for the student.