No Laying Up

 

No Laying Up!

 

 

Should you lay up to your favourite distance on a par 5 or short par 4 to give you the best chance for birdie?

Let's look at a few figures to see what's best. Figures are from the PGA Tour Stats in 2026 up until November 11th.

First the scoring average on par 5's.

PAR 5 SCORING AVERAGE

• 1st: 4.36 shots (Jake Knapp - 166 holes)

• 50th: 4.53 shots

• Tour Average: 4.58 shots

• 100th: 4.58 shots

• 150th: 4.64 shots

Every player averages under par for the par 5's with Jake Knapp basically birdieing 2 out of every 3 par 5's.

APPROACH SHOTS (PROXIMITY TO HOLE)

20-30 Yards

• 1st: 7' 3" (Justin Thomas - 91 shots)

• 50th: 8' 10"

• Tour Average: 9' 6"

• 100th: 9' 6"

• 150th: 10' 5"

50-75 Yards

• 1st: 10' 0" (Bud Cauley - 21 shots)

• 50th: 14' 6"

• Tour Average: 17' 4"

• 100th: 17' 9"

• 150th: 22' 8"

75-100 Yards

• 1st: 12' 5" (Adam Scott - 43 shots)

• 50th: 16' 2"

• 100th: 18' 0"

• Tour Average: 18' 2"

• 150th: 20' 0"

If your favourite lay up distances are 60 or so yards or 80 or so yards, the best proximity to the hole will be around 10 feet for 60 and 12.5 feet for 80 and going by the tour averages you'll be closer to 18 feet.

But if you get with 20-30 yards of the green all tour players are going to average inside 10 feet.

Now let's look at the make percentage from those distances.

PUTTING (MAKE PERCENTAGE)

10 Feet

• 1st: 65.85% (John Van Der Laan - 41 putts)

• 50th: 48.57%

• Tour Average: 44.34%

• 100th: 41.86%

• 150th: 35.59%

10-15 Feet

• 1st: 43.98% (Sam Burns - 166 putts)

• 50th: 34.55%

• Tour Average: 32.76%

• 100th: 31.82%

• 150th: 28.13%

15-20 Feet

• 1st: 38.27% (Hayden Springer - 81 putts)

• 50th: 22.73%

• Tour Average: 21.25%

• 100th: 20.00%

• 150th: 16.80%

If we combine the best 50-75 yard player Bud Cauley at 10 feet with the best putter from 10 feet, John Van Der Laan at 66% we'd get a birdie 66% of the time or equal to Jake Knapp. The average wedge and putter would give us 17'4" and a 21.25% from there so around a 4.8 average, worse than the worst par 5 average

Laying up to 80 yards and combining the best would gives us Adam Scott at 12.5 feet with Sam Burns converting about 44% but probably a little more as the 44 takes into account all distances from 10-15 feet, so let's make it a 50% make rate so a birdie every second par 5 and an average of 4.5, which would be a little better than tour average. The average wedge and putter would give us 18'2" and a 21.25% from there so around a 4.8 average, again worse than the worst par 5 average.

Not let's go for it and get as close as possible or on the green, the worst case scenario here would get us to within 20-30 yards of the green and all tour players will average 10 feet 5 inches or better from there. Going with the average conversion rate of 44% or so from there we will get close to the tour par 5 average of 4.58.

So laying up means you have to be both the best wedge player and best putter from those distances to get the best or good results on par 5s. If you get average results from the wedge and putter you end up worse than average results for par 5s.

Whereas going for it and getting average results such as ending up 20-30 yards from the hole gives you at worst the average scores for par 5s. Naturally you may hit the green too, making scoring easier again.

Going for it gives you the best results, laying up to a number all the time doesn't. Next time you're playing a long hole get as close to the green as you can unless there's a severe penalty such as water or OB in your way.

Also remember laying up doesn't guarantee you'll hit a good lay up and going for it doesn't mean you'll hit a bad shot either.