Would a Random Practice Routine Really Help Your Game?

I was reading an article this morning that talked about the importance of mixing up your practice sessions by never hitting the same club back to back along with varying your shot shapes and objective for each shot for every ball you hit at the range.  The article pointed to the fact that when you play a round of golf you never hit the same club back to back, unless you duff a shot and practicing for that scenario will prepare you to play out on the course.

I understand the concept behind this approach, but the argument balances on one pivotal point.  It assumes that the person taking part in the practice session is comfortable with all of their clubs and shots.  If I am confident in most of my game then I can totally see going to the range and playing a practice round in my head by hitting a driver, 7 Iron then a chip to simulate a hole.  That makes sense, but I am always struggling with one portion of my game and really benefit from devoting a larger chunk of time to that struggling area.

If I am losing confidence in my shots from 100 yards then I want to go to the range and hit a bucket of 100 yard shots.  Am I crazy to think this actually does help me build my confidence back up for this shot.  The next time I go to hit that on the course I have a full practice round behind me to pull from and establish confidence that I CAN hit that shot.

If I go to the range and play a simulated hole where I hit driver and pull it left then hit a punch shot to simulate being in the trees then an approach shot that sequence will probably help me when I go to the course and find myself in the trees.  Other than that, I want the initial feedback of being able to hit another driver after I hit a bad one.  That is the reason I am at the range.  To work out the kinks.  If I hit a bad drive I don’t want to let that go without addressing it.

As much as I want to like this approach to practice, I just can’t.  I think it is unrealistic to ask the average everyday golfer to spend their money at the range and not be able to work out their mechanics by hitting balls and gauging results.  If the golfer is comfortable with their game then it makes more sense, but I don’t see that being the case for most of us.  I could be looking at this the wrong way, but I don’t see this being a real upgrade in practice techniques.