A surprising Tiger/Foley practice session this evening at the Open

Tiger Woods shot a solid second 67 today at Royal Lytham & St Annes and puts himself in great position for the weekend.

Personally I have liked what Tiger has done up to now.

His on course management has been impeccable, planning each shot rigorously and conservatively.

It´s exactly what one has to do on a course full of pot bunkers and unplayable rough.

I have also liked his patience, a basic requisite in any Major venue where most pin positions tend to be very difficult. Tiger has also shown us that his short game is back to his best.

His golf swing seems to be well automatized, and all in all his long game looks solid and under control.

That´s why I was so surprised to watch what transpired on TV about an hour after Tiger Woods finished his play.

We were treated to a Tiger Woods/ Sean Foley (his swing coach) practice session on the driving range.

But more than a practice session, it looked  like a full fledged golf lesson. At one point we could see Foley snapping photographs from behind and showing them to Tiger emphasizing something. At another point he got Tiger to put a glove under his right shoulder and to hit balls. In the process Foley looked tremendously active, almost agitated, in making his points.

It doesn´t strike me to be the time or place for this type of detailed instruction when one´s pupil is in the hunt in a Major golf tournament,

I would have expected a very relaxed and easy going practice session. Just a little fine tuning and some practice of a couple of key shots.

 But, full fledged drills and photographs ??????. Very surprising.

I kind of liked what Francisco (Paco) Aleman, the excellent ESPN commentator in Spanish, said when he saw what was happening. He said something like: "No, let´s hope he leaves him alone" (Foley of Tiger).

The reason for avoiding any kind of  instruction that smells of swing change, in the middle of a tournament,  is because any changes necessarily have to be carried out with the conscious mind.

And to take to the course anything new in a Major when the pressure can be enormous is something that can be fatal.

We know that great golf shots are the product of a perfect mind body synchronization in the present moment, when the body, that obviously does not think, is perfectly synchronized with the automatic or unconscious mind, that also operates in the present mode.

If the golfer has to "recall" a technical aspect that was reinforced to him the evening before, he can only do this by utilizing his conscious mind, and that "magical" mind/ body synchronization becomes impossible.

For me it´s going to be a fascinating watching Tiger this weekend.

Hopefully it wont be a repetition of what happened to him on the weekend of the US Open at Olympic last month.