NEWPORT – If enthusiasm could build a golf course, Jeff Peabody would be done already.

As it is, Peabody will be logging long hours at the former Orchard View Golf Course in the coming weeks, restoring it as the Newport Country Club.

The historic course, which overlooks Sebasticook Lake and the hills of central Maine, has been closed, and neglected, for two years, about the same time Peabody has been trying to buy it.

“I’m going to be on a golf course for the rest of my life,” the John Bapst High School golf coach said this week. “I figured it might as well be my own.”

Peabody fell in love with the slow slopes of the Newport course, which is ideal for walking golfers, he said. As the course is surrounded by an apple orchard, early summer golfing is an experience for the senses, he said. The fairways are so gradual that golfers don’t need a cart. And the fairways also are bordered by pine trees, making them safe for golfers of any ability.

“Few flying golf balls,” he explained.

If golfers aren’t up to the ease of the game, Peabody is.

Saturday afternoons are reserved for clinics to introduce new golfers, particularly women, to the sport.

“A lot of golfers will want to know we’ve lengthened the tees,” he said. “There’s room for that. The applicators are working on the greens. We’ll have them up to tournament speed in no time. We need to work on defining the fairways a little more.”

The only thing lacking for the perfect experience may be the aging potato house-turned-clubhouse, he said. The deteriorated building is due for some renovations of its own, but is being kept on the simple side, he said. In the future, however, Peabody has total replacement in mind.

An early 1900s-era wooden water tower marks the site of the golf course on the northwest side of Newport, and it soon will grace Peabody’s advertising. The course’s logo will depict the tower flanked by the sun and moon, indicating the 24-hour golfing experience he hopes to offer to all ages.

The Newport course is the only fully lighted golf course in New England, as far as he knows. Peabody hopes the lighting option will offer an edge in the local golf experience.

The course owner is shooting for a grand opening in early June with a day of free golf and free food. With good weather, he hopes the course can open for business in early May.

“Golf only grows at 3 percent a year,” he said. “It could be 15 percent if it was more affordable. That’s what I want to do – make it affordable for everyone. I’m looking to make it a family sport.”

A round of golf will be only $11, he said.

“I want people to be able to enjoy the experience here without having to absorb the price,” he added.

The nine-hole course on Golf Course Road is not Peabody’s first Maine restoration effort. In 1999, he returned to his home state to restore the Lucerne-in-Maine Golf Club with a partner.

A Stonington native, Peabody was first introduced to golf as a child when his father got him a summer job near Bath where the family relocated.

“It changed my life,” he said of his two summers at Bath Country Club.

His avid interest in golf earned him a scholarship to the University of Tampa after he graduated from Cheverus High School in Portland. His life as a golf pro took a back seat temporarily when he returned to Maine to help with the family contracting business and get a degree in finance from the University of Maine.

Before settling down to a life in business, Peabody was intent on seeing the world.

“I went west,” he said, grinning with satisfaction. “I earned my [PGA pro] card in 26 months. I taught [golf] in Hawaii, on Waikiki, for two years.”

Peabody spent seven years touring the world of golf, serving as pro at the Las Vegas Golf Club and the exclusive Spanish Trails Golf Club in Nevada. His clients included the likes of famed pitcher Greg Maddux, tennis star Andre Agassi, and business tycoon Donald Trump. Hawaii also introduced him to his wife, who followed him around the world as his caddie.

“It was all working toward coming home,” he said, scanning the slowly greening course at Newport. “This will be beautiful.”