Golf: The Fox and the Tiger - Ryan Fox's surprise practice session with Tiger Woods ahead of Open Championship

Tiger Woods and Ryan Fox. Photos / Photosport

Kiwi golfer Ryan Fox has had a "dream" warm-up ahead of tonight's Open Championship.

As Fox – the only New Zealander in the field – gears up for the event at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland, he was given a surprise opportunity to play with Tiger Woods while practicing for the major.

The 32-year-old said it was a dream to play alongside Woods, albeit for just one hole.

"Achieved a dream today to play with Tiger in a major," Fox wrote on Instagram. "Even if it was only 1 hole on a Tuesday. Golf swing looking good from the big cat."

Fox explained that he happened to run into Woods at the golf course during a practice session when the 15-time major champ offered an invitation to join him on the first hole.

"I was due to play with a couple of the Aussie boys at 7.50 in the morning and I think Tiger was the group earlier than us," Fox told Radio Sport.

"He was planning on playing nine holes and he really wanted to play the back nine so he teed off the first and just said 'hey boys I'm playing one, if you want to join me feel free' and we sort of jumped at the chance.

"You certainly don't say no to that. So I got to play the first hole with him and then he buggered off the back nine and we carried on to play the whole 18 with the Aussie boys.

"It was still a pretty cool experience to see I guess an idol growing up that close and to have a bit of a chat to him was pretty cool."

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The Kiwi number one has been struggling with form lately, failing to make a cut since March after winning his first European Tour title in February.

He says he feels like he's getting better and hopes to take a calmer mindset out to the final major of the year.

"Golf can be a funny game sometimes, it can all be quite close and you can't put a score together or sometimes technically you can be all over the place but manage to get it round.

"I kind of feel the form at the moment, it's trending in the right direction technically and just got to get that confidence and get a score together and stop making a couple of silly mistakes here and there.

"Hopefully this is the week and I guess regardless I'm going to go out with a mindset of enjoying playing an Open Championship, a pretty spectacular venue like this and the atmosphere is going to be amazing."