LINCOLN – In its planning stages, Tom Gardner viewed the project that would become JaTo Highlands Golf Course as little more than a family diversion.

“It started out that it was just gonna be a small, little track,” Gardner says with a grin. “A little three- to six-holer for the family.”

At some point or other, the plan being contemplated by Gardner and his father-in-law, Jay McFalls, changed.

A lot.

McFalls and Gardner eventually started kicking around the idea of really getting into the golf business. Eighteen holes. A clubhouse. A putting green. A driving range. The whole works.

And they’d call it JaTo … for Jay, and Tom.

“I said, ‘If you want to do it, I’ll work with you,'” Gardiner recalls. “I’m not afraid to move dirt around.”

This year, the entire 18-hole layout is open for the first full season. And after one round one thing is clear: Gardner moved his dirt pretty well.

Of course, he admits that he had some built-in advantages: like a 150-acre parcel of land that made his job pretty easy.

“It isn’t real complicated,” says Gardner, who spent a winter reading and a summer playing before turning the land into a golf course.

“I’m not saying I’d want to go to New York City and build one. It took a lot of thought and I didn’t just sit down one night and do it,” Gardner says.

“It took a lot of legwork, and a lot of stringing out and measuring and looking. And you’ve got to be able to see it. You’ve got to be able to have a vision.”

The end result sprawls across a hillside and takes full advantage of the rugged natural beauty available a short drive from downtown Lincoln.

Gardner and McFalls knew that the nearest 18-hole courses were in Island Falls to the north and Bangor in the south. They figured a demand existed, and set out to fill it.

“We’re not that far from the Bangor crowd, and we want to draw from there,” says Gardner, who points out that a golfer who has to wait for an hour to tee off at a Bangor-area course could have driven all the way to JaTo Highlands in the same time.

“We know we’re not gonna make a go of it out of Lincoln, Maine, obviously,” he says. “We need to draw from Bangor. We need to draw from Millinocket. Houlton. Milo. Down East. And we do.”

The back nine opened during the second week of July in 2000, and the front nine a year before that.

And already, JaTo Highlands can take your breath away.

Head to the top of the course, like No. 4 or No. 15, and (after a tough climb … or a comfortable cart ride) you receive one of JaTo’s trademark rewards: On a clear day, the jagged peaks of Mount Katahdin loom in the distance.

Or head downhill to No. 10, and you’re treated to one of those picturesque holes that only hillside courses can provide. In short, it’s a bucket hole. … like man, I wish I could stick around for an hour and hit a bucket of balls from here!

The 183-yard par 3 is a straight downhill shot to a green about 100 feet below. Greenside forest fades to a nearby pond, and both are framed by distant mountains.

Gardner says the 10th hole is just one at JaTo Highlands that would get people’s attention.

“I knew No. 10 was gonna be our signature hole and be very special, just because of the elevation drop,” Gardner says.

Among JaTo’s other special features:

. No. 12, a 381-yard par-4 that doglegs gracefully left as it climbs a hill. Three massive pine trees stand sentry, about every 50 yards or so, in the middle of the fairway. Two more closer to the right rough will penalize golfers who stray.

“Ninety percent of the people that saw that [hole] said those trees should be gone,” Gardner says. “Now 90 percent say they’re glad those trees are there.”

. Well-thought-out greens that provide friendly targets on longer holes … and tight, pesky landing platforms on the shorter ones.

The best example: No. 5, a 267-yard, downhill par 4 that will give nearly every golfer a short approach shot.

But getting a wedge to hold on the tiny green – which sits on top of a tightly groomed mound – is a test, even from inside 50 yards.

. Sand. Sand. Sand.

JaTo challenges golfers with 52 bunkers (course manager Eric Dubay has the number memorized), but golfers can’t hope to get a fairer bunker lie.

Gardner got the sand out of family-owned eskers in Lincoln and put it to use on the course.

. Moose and deer and bears … oh my.

“Everything that’s in the state of Maine, I think we have up here,” Gardner says. “And you’ve got a good chance of seeing them either early in the morning or late in the evening.”

Eagles and ruffed grouse are among the bird species to be seen, and the course is pursuing certification in the Audubon Society’s Cooperative Sanctuary Program.

“Nowadays you’re hearing so much about how golf courses are not environmentally friendly, and that’s completely false,” Dubay says. “That’s one reason we’d like to get that recognition.”

Despite the rugged feel of the course, Gardner points out that one of JaTo’s main objectives was to provide golfers with a course they could feel like they could conquer.

“We wanted people to come out here and score, or come close to a good score,” Gardner says. “They’d say, ‘That ain’t a bad track out there. I think I could come back and score there.'”

JATO HIGHLANDS GOLF COURSE

Holes: 18

Yards: par: 5,647 (blue), 5,444 (white), 4,739 (red)

Slope: 113 (blue tees), 111 (white); rating: 67.7 (blue), 66.6 (white)

Green fees: 9 holes: $12; 18 holes: $22

Memberships: $500 adults; $1,100 family; $900 couples; $450 seniors 60 and over; $800 senior couples; $225 juniors 18 and under; (preseason discounts: 20 percent off before April 1)

Tee times: Encouraged and accepted on weekends

Directions: Take I-95 to Exit 55, follow signs to Lincoln. Turn left onto Route 2 and follow it for five miles. Turn right on Town Farm Road. JaTo Highlands is on the right.

Phone: 794-2133

Footwear: Soft spikes only

John Holyoke will be profiling a Maine golf course each Tuesday. Contact him at 990-8214 or by e-mail at jholyoke@bangordailynews.net