You're Correct!

If you can play the shot required you do not need to lay up, but play to your strengths and everyone is an individual so there is no right or wrong answer to this.

In answering this question it really does depend upon the situation that you are faced with out on the golf course and on you as an individual. If you feel that the shot that you are facing you can play well and you feel confident that it is within your ability to play that shot well, you can play that shot eight or nine times out of 10 well, then you should take the shot on, you should not lay up on that hole.

However, if the shot that you are required to play is too much for you, or you feel that you can only play the shot well a low number of times, it is a low percentage shot for you, then definitely it is worth laying up, because if you play the shot and it does not come off and you end up having penalty shots added to your score for that hole, it would have been much better to have laid the shot up, played it short of whatever the problem is, then played a shot that you know you can take on much more readily.

Whether you should lay up or not depends on the shot you are facing and whether you feel you can take that shot on and play it well a high percentage number of times and this will depend upon you as an individual and where your strengths lie.

Off the course, learn to play the shot, or shots, that you are not playing when out on the golf course. Develop these shots so that you become a better player, who is more able to successfully play difficult shots and then your score will improve.

You should use your course management skills to determine when an aggressive play is worthwhile.

If you always lay up when you are out playing on the golf course, then you are playing too negatively and not being aggressive enough to develop your game and challenge your ability to improve to progress your skill and abilities. If you always lay up your golf score will not improve, it will not get any worse, but it will not improve. You want to attack the hole and you do want to play shots you are able to play – remember play to your strengths.

The only time you want to lay up is if you feel you cannot make the shot that is required in front of you. If that is the case then play the lay up shot to make the next shot easier with whatever the challenge is that you are facing. If you adopt that strategy you should find you are scoring a lot better out on the course because better golf management will massively reduce your golf scores.