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Jamie Jackson grew up on a golf course in Lakeland, Fl. His father, Jamie Jackson Sr., was a golf professional for more than 50 years and served as vice president of the national PGA in 1967 and 1968.
Jamie began playing seriously at age 9, the same year he made his first hole-in-one. At 14 he shot his first even-par round in a tournament and as a reward he was allowed to begin teaching with his father in junior clinics. He likes to joke that, "As a player I became a pretty good teacher." The fact is, he became good enough to play the mini-tour for a few years before getting sidetracked by a back injury and an increasing demand to give lessons.
In 1975 he graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in psychology. He spent two years in graduate school with an emphasis on learning theory, most of which he applies to his teaching.
With the exception of three years designing and building golf courses, Jamie has been a golf instructor his entire adult life. He has been teaching in the Tampa Bay area for more than 40 years. Through everything, however, he has always been a student of the game. His ongoing studies include biomechanics, kinesiology and sports psychology. He feels that these are the next big areas of development for people's golf games. Jamie is also a big believer in the mentor system. He has worked with or studied all the big names in teaching. His golf library wa over 1600 volumes at last count. He has made extensive study of technique from Leslie King's free arm swing to Homer Kelley's golfing machine.
Since March of 1996 he has been studying MEGSA (Most Efficient Golf Swing Attainable) under Mike Bender. Mike is National Teacher of the Year and one of Golf Digest Top 50 Instructors, also one of only a handful in the world to be certified by Mac O'Grady. Jamie has worked with Mac O'Grady in seminars and in Jamie's opinion, Mike Bender is far and away the best teacher on the planet. Not only is his MEGSA approach far superior to theory or "fad based" approaches, but his application is far superior to any other instructor.
Jamie has enjoyed success with all types of students from beginners to mini tour professionals. His credits include numerous club champions both ladies and mens. To date he has had thirty of his junior students
receive scholarships to play golf in college. His most recent scholarship success Anthony Maccaglia won the Division III National Championship for Oglethorpe University as a freshman. In addition to being the number one player in Division III college golf he recently moved into the top 100 ranking of all amateur golfers. Jamie admits however, to being most proud of taking some of his less talented students and helping them to lower their handicaps to a respectable level.
Jamie has always had a passion for teaching and really cares about the progress of his students. In addition to his state of the art video box, his students attest that his abundant patience and his ability to communicate are his best assets.
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