Do not let the costume fool you, there is a real golfer inside that Jaguar’s outfit.

Jaxson de Ville already has some big golfing scalps to his name, with Jim Furyk, the 2003 US Open champion, chief among them, and he is looking to take a few more at the Bermuda Golf Classic, which starts today.

The Jacksonville Jaguars mascot might not have a recognised handicap, but Curtis Dvorak, the man inside the suit does, and it is a pretty good one.

Dvorak hovers anywhere between plus-one, and one, and has played in qualifiers for the US Open and US Mid Amateur tournament.

As his alter ego Dvorak’s handicap is probably closer to six or seven, but until last Friday the Jaguars vice-president of mascot operations had never played a full round in his costume and so was not sure how he would fair. It turns out that he is not that bad even when he is wearing an oversized head that limits his vision and bigger shoes than necessary.

“In costume we had always speculated what my handicap might be,” Dvorak said. “At charity events I do trick shots in my costume, hit drives off my knees, I’ve done all that stuff and hit balls on the ranges, but I’d never played a whole round in costume.

“I went out to a local course and I shot a 78, I was pleasantly surprised because I didn’t know what the fatigue factor was going to be, and what the putting and chipping [would be like].

“What was magnified in the costume was the short game, the putting and chipping, without the vision and depth perception, my chipping looked like Tiger Woods, and not the good Tiger Woods.”

Today, however, will be the first time that Dvorak has played an 18-hole tournament as Jaxson, and while he does not expect to win he does fancy his chances of finishing in the top ten of the 28-man field. How well that would go down with the other competitors is hard to tell.

Jaxson beat Furyk in a closest to the pin challenge at a Jaguars home game two seasons ago and the highlight appeared on ESPN on their “Not Top 10”, needless to say Furyk was not happy.

“I thought it should have been on my Top 10,” Dvorak said.

“I know some of the players, Fred Taylor and Marcus Stroud are good friends of mine, and I don’t think they will be bothered at all.

“We’ll see how well I do, I’ve seen some of the names of those playing. Billy Joe Toliver’s a really good player, I don’t have any illusions of winning, unless I can take Billy Joe to the pub the night before.”

That Dvorak can perform trick shots and compete in celebrity challenges in his suit at all is impressive, but he said that after 20-years as the mascot doing anything in the costume came naturally.

The outfit is as much a part of his day as wearing a shirt and tie is for office workers.

“I’ve been playing golf since I was five-years-old,” he said. “I’d go to tournaments and hit balls in the costume, and it was like anything else I do with the suit.

“I’ve worn it so long that a lot of the stuff I do, people go ‘how do you do that’ things like walking on stilts, using roller blades, it becomes second nature when you wear the suit for as many years as I have worn it.”