hi nicole .
every suggestion you made has merit but this one ( see quote ) is a great piece of advice.
just to elaborate on what nicole has mentioned.
How can we possibly hope to gain anything from practicing with a mixture of old balls.
Ok , i know that on the range we have to use those hard range balls but when we practice our finnesse shots like chipping , pitching and putting, we must do so with the balls we use on the course or we will never develope a FEELING for these shots.

cheers