COLIN BYRNE CADDIE'S ROLE:The quaint island off the Massachusetts coast is also home to a wonderful Caddie Camp

FOR THOSE of us who didn't earn enough points to make it to the third showdown of the FedEx Cup in St Louis, Missouri, it provided a rare opportunity to take a vacation in New England.

I took a short hop in a tiny plane to the small and discrete island of Nantucket, just south of Cape Cod off the Massachusetts coast. It is like taking a step back in time, to an age where neon lights had not yet been invented and one distinct type of architecture was enough to keep visitors to the island content in a very understated way.

Nantucket, apart from being a low-key getaway for wealthy east-coasters, was originally a whaling centre. It is very much a seafarer's island which attracts fishermen who are ready to tussle with big fish. The elaborate fighting chairs on most of the fishing boats in the wharf suggest that they would be equipped to haul in Moby Dick.

The terrain on the island is very much like the north coast of Europe, reminiscent of the coastal towns in Belgium or Holland.

Naturally this sandy land is ideal terrain for golf.

Without golf in mind, I stumbled upon a course that is as close as you are going to get to a links course at home: bunkerless, rolling sandy fairways, the club flag flapping high above the course in the frisky sea breeze and golfers out walking the course instead of using the electric cart that is now the tradition in America.

I wandered towards the modest clubhouse to see what sort of club I had found. A very different one, if the poster on the secretary manager's wall was an indication. Over his desk there was a picture of the Dalai Lama. This is a first in all the golf clubs I have visited around the globe (I must confess I have not been to Tibet).

Not only had I come across a course that you would expect to find in a sleepy fishing village on the coast off Brittany, but the extremely welcoming manager informed me that the club hosts a very elaborate caddie programme unparalleled anywhere in the world.

I was redirected to the Caddie Camp at Sankaty Head Golf Club, which was situated between the 11th and 13th holes on the links.

I rattled along the sandy track to the camp, passing fourballs of elderly men and women pulling their caddie-cars, dressed in long-sleeved shirts and flannels. I could have taken a step back in time to a British upper-class continental summer retreat. All that was missing was the plaid rug and the wicker picnic basket.

Having crossed the 12th tee, I pulled up to the deserted Caddie Camp, which looked like a small army barracks.

I was greeted by the camp director, Peter Montesano, who was in the process of closing up the camp for the season, hence the members pulling their own bags. The campers had packed up for another year the previous week, so it had the look of an abandoned outpost.

The camp originated in 1930 shortly after the club was founded. Traditionally there have been boys from California to Canada at the camp, and more recently representatives from Ireland and France.

For boys aged 14 to 20, the residential camp combines varied competitive sports and recreational activities with "healthful" work. The essence of the camp is to develop such values as honesty, integrity, industry and money management.

During the summer camp experience the lads should become acquainted not only with fun and comradeship but also with some of life's adversities and challenges, and how to cope with them.

Wandering around the empty camp you get a sense of a form of life training and discipline that I am sure all kids would benefit from. For those of us who did not have obligatory military service, the Sankaty camp would probably be as close as you would get to it.

Through daily caddying duties the lads get the opportunity to save quite a bit of cash. The director figured that in the 10 weeks they are in camp their savings range from €2,000 to just under €8,000.

This, coupled with the concepts and philosophy in camp, makes the experience more importantly about these ideals rather than the basic militaristic accommodations.

The Sankaty Head Caddie Camp is a wonderful tradition in a truly mystical place that gives the impression that time has forgotten it.

Which I am sure would please those elders who have gone to great lengths to maintain Nantucket's old world and understated atmosphere.