When Should I Lay Up When Should I Go For It? (Video) - by Peter Finch
When Should I Lay Up When Should I Go For It? (Video) - by Peter Finch

When should I lay up and when should I go for it? This boils down to course management and correctly accessing where you are during a game either match play or stroke play. Now when you are deciding whether to lay up safer par five or go for par five, you need to say to yourself, is this a shot I have played before? Can I achieve this shot? Do I know how to play this shot? Have I got the club for this shot? And then after deciding those factors, asking yourself do I need to win this hole? Can I win this hole just with a birdie or do I need an eagle? Am I down in the match, how I opened the match, am I having a good score, do I need to improve my score. All these things you should be asking yourself before deciding whether to go for a shot or whether to ease upon a shot. A great situation would be, if you have two up with two holes to play, you are both in the middle of a par for a fair way and the pin is tucked just to the right of a very, very deep bunker on the front left of the green.

Now your partner needs to go for that shot if he is two down, he needs to win the hole. You can decide to just go from the centre of the green and play safe and then hopefully have a two putt par and hopefully win in the match. If you are one down going up the last and you have a got a long shot in to a par five you need to go for it then cut loose have a go, but what I would recommend is that you practice the different types of shot that you think you are going to need. If you have a shot which is 200 yards into a par five and you are not quite comfortable playing it, make a note of it, practice it after the round so the next time you are faced with that situation you will be able to apply the shot and have confidence in it. One thing you don’t want to be doing is getting out onto that course and just going for absolutely every single shot. If you go for absolute every single shot somewhere along the way you will become unstuck. When you watch the best players play in the majors or a tough competition, they plot their around the course knowing which holes to go for, knowing where to hit in the fairway and not going for every shot that they see. It’s about planning and putting your way around the course and knowing which shots to go for and which shots to ease back on. So try this little tips, get on the course use good course management, play the percentages but also know where you are in your match. If you need to win a hole go for it, if you need to play safe don’t be afraid of diving back and playing safe as well. 2014-05-29

When should I lay up and when should I go for it? This boils down to course management and correctly accessing where you are during a game either match play or stroke play. Now when you are deciding whether to lay up safer par five or go for par five, you need to say to yourself, is this a shot I have played before? Can I achieve this shot? Do I know how to play this shot? Have I got the club for this shot? And then after deciding those factors, asking yourself do I need to win this hole? Can I win this hole just with a birdie or do I need an eagle? Am I down in the match, how I opened the match, am I having a good score, do I need to improve my score. All these things you should be asking yourself before deciding whether to go for a shot or whether to ease upon a shot. A great situation would be, if you have two up with two holes to play, you are both in the middle of a par for a fair way and the pin is tucked just to the right of a very, very deep bunker on the front left of the green.

Now your partner needs to go for that shot if he is two down, he needs to win the hole. You can decide to just go from the centre of the green and play safe and then hopefully have a two putt par and hopefully win in the match. If you are one down going up the last and you have a got a long shot in to a par five you need to go for it then cut loose have a go, but what I would recommend is that you practice the different types of shot that you think you are going to need. If you have a shot which is 200 yards into a par five and you are not quite comfortable playing it, make a note of it, practice it after the round so the next time you are faced with that situation you will be able to apply the shot and have confidence in it. One thing you don’t want to be doing is getting out onto that course and just going for absolutely every single shot. If you go for absolute every single shot somewhere along the way you will become unstuck. When you watch the best players play in the majors or a tough competition, they plot their around the course knowing which holes to go for, knowing where to hit in the fairway and not going for every shot that they see. It’s about planning and putting your way around the course and knowing which shots to go for and which shots to ease back on. So try this little tips, get on the course use good course management, play the percentages but also know where you are in your match. If you need to win a hole go for it, if you need to play safe don’t be afraid of diving back and playing safe as well.