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Tom Morris did not have unplayable option
In Old Tom Morris' days, players faced with unplayable lies were forced to chip away until they had extricated the ball, no matter how bad the lie or the number of strokes it might take. There were some high numbers posted!
However, rulesmakers added Rule 28 which allows today's golfers to declare the play unplayable at any place on the course except when the ball is in a water hazard. The player is the sole judge as to whether the ball is unplayable.
Under penalty of one stroke, the player has three options.
1. Play the ball as nearly as possible at the spot where the original ball was last played.
2. Drop a ball within two-club lengths of the spot where the ball lay, but not nearer the hole.
3. 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, with no limit to how far behind.
Of course, using option 1 means lost of distance, but that is sometimes the only choice.
When using option 2, the two clubs must be from the exact spot on which the ball lay. Sometimes that is just not enough to escape the unplayable situation. You also take a risk in that the dropped ball could always roll back into another unplayable lie.
Using option 3 sometimes allows you enough room to clear the trouble, such as trees, without losing as much distance as you would with option 1. Be careful, however. If the ball happens to roll closer to the hole, it is in play since it is not closer to the hole than where the unplayable lie was.
If the unplayable lie is in a bunker, the player must drop the ball in the bunker unless he decides to take option 1, returning to where he played the last shot.
Make sure that you do not make the mistake that Isao Aoki made one year in the old Doug Sanders Classic. His ball was buried in the face of the bunker. It took all the players and caddies to locate it. Aoki decided to drop in the bunker, but his caddie raked that spot first. Oops! He did not add the two-stroke penalty for this infraction of the rules. This fact was not brought to the rules officials' attention until after Aoki had signed his card and he was disqualfied.
What happens if your ball is lodged in a tree? If there is reasonable evidence that it is your ball, you may be able to declare it unplayable and use one of the three options. If there is doubt, you may have to shake or climb the tree or throw something to try and dislodge the ball in an effort to identify it. Be sure to announce your intentions of wanting to declare it unplayable if it is indeed your ball. Otherwise, you would incur a penalty stroke for moving a ball at rest and have to replace it!