lay up1
Golf Hit the ball deliberately to a lesser distance than possible, typically in order to avoid a hazard: the conservative thing to do was lay up and settle for a five...
- In fact, I laid up on every par 5 but still made a birdie each time.
- I debated with my caddie, Stevie, about laying up.
- I hit my drive in the fairway, laid up with a 7-iron, then hit a wedge to the back fringe.
See parent entry: lay
lay-up2 
noun
1 [mass noun] The state whereby a ship is laid up: the ship ended its days in lay-up...
- It refitted the Silver Wind during her long period in lay-up to resume operating all four ships for the summer season, then withdrew the Silver Cloud at the end of October to undergo a similar refit.
- It was planned that the third engineer should remain on board throughout the period of lay-up as sole watchman.
- A prime objective of lay-up is to prepare your boat for the inevitability of freezing conditions.
2 Basketball A one-handed shot made from near the basket, especially one that rebounds off the backboard.This year my team did really bad because they couldn't hit their jump shots, 3 pointers, lay-ups, or free throws....
- He never tried jump shots, just lay-ups and dunks.
- You'll have a number of tools at your disposal to rack up the points on the court, along with the usual jump shots, dunks and lay-ups.