He can return to the spot from which he played his original shot or he can drop a ball behind the point where the ball lay, keeping that point directly between the hole and the spot on which the ball is dropped.

There is no limit to how far behind that point that the ball may be dropped and nothing prevents a player from dropping the ball in the fairway. This is the option that Garcia elected to use.

Players need to be careful when taking the drop in the latter case. I remember that a player in the Texas State Open saw his ball bounce and roll forward. Thinking that he had to re-drop, he picked up the ball. He then finished the hole from where the second drop ended up.

When brought to my attention after the round and before he signed his scorecard, I had to rule that he played from the wrong position and was penalized two additional strokes. The ball was not closer to the hole that where it lay.

Remember, a player is the sole judge as to whether or not his ball is unplayable in any place on the course except when the ball is in a water hazard. If the ball happened to be in a bunker, he must drop the ball in the bunker unless he opts to play a ball as nearly as possible at the spot the original ball was last played.

While on this subject, I came across some interesting history about how this rule was applied at Scottish golf clubs back in the 1800s in "The Rules of the Green" by Kenneth Chapman.

If a player elected to invoke the unplayable rule and his opponent agreed, then he could drop behind that point and lose a stroke. However, if the adversary didn't agree, then that player had the right to try and play the ball out.

If he accomplished this in three tries, the original player had to add those strokes to his score or lose the hole. In a twist that discouraged some from disputing a player's claim that the ball was unplayable, if the opponent failed to extricate the ball, the strokes were added to his score or he lost the hole.