Off and On Season Practice Routine

Question
QUESTION: Hello.  I am looking for a daily routine for both off and on season of play.  I am ready to take it to the level of a touring professional and would like to have a daily routine of practice.  Thank you for your time.

ANSWER: hello and thank you for your question.  i am sorry if it took so long to reply....  i am guessing that you are a descent player with a hope of making the cut line at q school.  i am not so sure how old you are as this can defer your schedule quite a bit.  please clarify some information as i cannot help you if some vague description.
i would prefer info on how old you are, your handicapp, your weaknesses and strenghts, access to golf course, time limit, your job, etc, etc, etc.  thank you.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hello and thank you for responding.  I am a 36 year old with a 5 handicap.  My strength is my short game and my weakness is the long game especially off the tee.  I have unlimited access to different courses which are open year round since I am in Central Florida.  I have between 4 and 6 hours a day to be either on the course or driving range.  I usually play 4-5 times a week and the days I do not play I am at the driving range for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening.  I work on the driving range, chipping green, and putting green during the 2 hour slots.  I am the director of a gymnastics gym and work out with the team kids.  Thank you for your assistance and time.

Answer
hello and thank you so much for your personal info.  now that i know a little more about you, we can formulate a schedule.  so it sounds to me like the only way for you to play professionally is to attend q school and qualify to either play on mini tours or the pga tour...   it costs money and yes, q-school is VERY nerve wrecking...  if you are not familiar with q-school, then i strongly suggest reading tales from the q-school written by john feinstein.  it is good to hear that you have acess to different courses.  and 4 to 6 hours a day is indeed a plenty of time...  and its excellent that you are fit or at least i believe you are...
1. lets try to fit your game to the q-school level.  by that i mean practicing on similar courses and etc.  for example, they held q-school at san juan oaks and pasatiempo.  both do have alleviations but not so serious.  both have plenty of hazards and OBs to ruin your round and your mental game.  and missing the fairway by a large margin calls for a huge penalty...  whats even more important is that the placement of your drives are crucial.  so if you are not good with tee shots, we definitely need to work on that.  however, i do not know your problems, how long you drive it or if your accuracy is on or off...  so i can't go in great detail about that...  i strongly suggest seeing a good professional instructor to help your tee shots...

2.  when you are on the range... its important that you practice all sorts of shots.  since you practice 2 hours in the mornings and 2 hours at night... lets do this by practicing your short game in the morning and long game at night.  the reason is because i want you to observe and practice different shots from different spots around the greens.  do flop shots, practice bunker shots, long bunker shots, standard chipping, downhill chipping, sidehill, uphill, etc, etc, etc.  you can't do all this when its dark outside.  so lets take care of these things in the morning.  do NOTHING but short game in the morning.... practice wedge shots from 30, 40, 50, 60 and all the way to 100.  GET YOUR YARDAGES DOWN AND KNOW WHAT TYPE OF SHOT FITS BEST FOR DIFFERENT YARDAGES.  when you are on the course and face a shot within 100 yards, you shouldn't have to debate and wonder how you are going to stick it.  it should be automatic. click, click, click!!! like a routine..  this is important as you will be able to take advantage of par 5s. so chip first, putt second and pitch last.  i want you to develop a good touch around the greens and it sounds like you are a good with short game but it can always be improved a little more.  when you practice putts, i want you to have about 10, non-range golf balls and practice making a 100 three-footers in a row.  if you miss one, then do it all over again.  its hard but it will help A LOT!!!!  when you are under pressure, you are going to be missing some easy putts that you will want to make...  so make 3-footers a routine putt.  

3.  long game for two hours during nights.  since you have two hours... its a plenty of time for you to bang about 200 golf balls.  maybe little less or more... one bucket for driver and woods and another bucket for irons.  you do need to work on your driver so why not try to perfect it?  but you also have to aknowledge that you can't go low if you don't hit the greens.  greens is number one factor for a low round and it can make your life a lot easier.  so practice hitting towards a certain target and really imagine that you NEED to hit the target and that you are under a real situation...  straighten out your irons and make sure you get your yardages down. start with a 9 iron and all the way to 3 iron.

4. when you are on the field...  i want you to play under some special rules.  if you miss the fairway by more than 5 yards, then give yourself an additional, one stroke penalty.  this is a great way to get you focused to hit the fairway and to even give you some pressure on the tee box.  don't play on generous course where misses are not penalized... play on courses with plenty of trees lining up the fairway, with slopes, hazards, water and ob...  and most importantly on golf courses that have slick, fast greens.  

5. lastly, i want you to contact Eddie Kilthau under the golf section.  he is under the same section that i am in.  
ask him for practice schedule sheets and give him your e-mail adress and he will send it over and you have a choic of using that sheet during your practice sessions.

i hope i helped... if you have further questions, then let me know!!!!!