"AS Bobby Jones once said, 'He plays a game with which I am not familiar'!", writes BRIAN DOOGAN.

The late, great Jones, patriarch of the US Masters in Augusta, coined the phrase to emphasise the disparity between a young Jack Nicklaus and the rest of the golf world.

Tom Martin, whose track record in golf quizes demonstrates there is little in the game he is unfamiliar with, used it last night to illustrate the difference between Jason Ashton and the rest of the field in the East Lancashire Golf Association championship.

The comment came when the Blackburn player wielded a wedge to Rossendale's par-three 13th, 150 yards in length, and finished just through the green.

But there were other examples of the prodigious power which one-handicapper Ashton used to overwhelm Andy Westwell, of the host club, 4 and 3 to secure the Lancashire Evening Telegraph Harold Ryden Trophy.

Two holes earlier he smashed his drive onto the front of the green, 313 yards from the tee, and two-putted to move three up.

"It's so intimidating when they bang 'em like that," said someone in the crowd.

On the next, a par-four measuring 486 yards, Ashton flicked a drive and a seven-iron level with but slightly left of the green.

If he had turned to the gallery and said - as they do in the Nike ad - "I'm Tiger Woods," some of us might have believed him.

"I have rarely witnessed such a demonstration of long, straight driving by an amateur," added Martin, who at one time played off one, competed in 40 consecutive Wilpshire Trophies and was the youngest captain at Wilpshire Golf Club.

For Jason Ashton, even more lofty achievements may await.

From the opening skirmishes, it was clear he was in control of the final.

If they were two boxers, Andy would have been on the back foot, anxiously trying to slip the missiles being hurled by Jason.

He did avoid them until the sixth when Ashton, who features a strong grip showing four knuckles on the left hand as opposed to the customary two, finally went one up.

Struggling on the greens, he had squandered chance after chance on the first five.

So frustrated was he with his short game that he reverted to a conventional putting grip after four holes, having opened using a cack-handed grip, left hand below right.

"I drove like a pro and putted like a 32-handicapper," said Ashton, who incidentally drives a van for this newspaper, prompting editor Peter Butterfield to suggest pasting a sign on the side of his van: "Best driver in Lancashire".

However, if he were to drive vehicles like he drives golf balls, it is in the business of long haulage Ashton would be, not delivering newspapers.

"The missed putts were becoming frustrating," added Ashton, who failed to make last year's quarter finals of the championship by three-putting on the final green.

"But I performed better on the greens when I switched to the conventional grip. It was much smoother."

He missed another chance on eight as Andy, off a handicap of two, fought tigerishly to stay in the game.

"I know not to go down that side," he told me as we walked to the eighth green where his ball clung onto the first cut at the top of a steep bank, a place he should not have been.

"I know not to do a lot of things," he added wryly. He was struggling with his game.

"I was more disappointed with not producing my normal game," he reflected this morning.

"Usually, I'm pretty steady off the tee but I was poor last night.

"Jason deserved his victory. He settled quicker and handled the psychological side of it better.

"I dropped five shots on the night and that's something you just can't do."

He dropped a further shot on nine to go two down and that monster drive on 11 put Ashton three up.

The match was closed out on the 15th when Westwell missed a 20-footer from the right half of the green.

"I'm delighted with the win - if I sort out my putting I can maybe go places," said Ashton.

The standard of this year's fine competition was set on Saturday when the qualifying mark for the knockout stages was a staggering plus one.

Ashton, however, just played a different game.

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