CLINTON – For years, people drove by the golf course on Hill Road, gazed longingly at the pristine fairways and sparkling ponds, then found a friend of the Brown family to ask one simple question.

“How can we get on for a round?”

The answer, sadly, was equally simple: Unless you get into one of the charity tournaments, you probably can’t.

Not any more.

As of June 15, the Clinton Golf Course (formerly open to family and friends … and an occasional tourney) is open to anyone.

And believe this: This mid-Maine gem won’t be a secret for long. Call soon. Line up a tee time. Then get ready for one of the most enjoyable days of golf you’ll spend all year.

Clinton Golf Course is a well-planned, meticulously maintained course that will provide players with an experience they’ve probably never had: The conditions are so perfectly undisturbed, you’ll swear nobody has ever hit a ball from the same place you are.

And that thought isn’t far from the truth.

“Sometimes, it would be weeks and nobody’d play,” says Steve Brown, who built the course – the first five holes at one time, and then the next four over a four-year span.

Two loops around the nine-hole course stretches to 6,355 yards from the back tees, 6,005 from the middle markers and 4,695 from the front.

“We just had so many people say, ‘Why isn’t it open? Why is it sitting here? Why can’t we play?'” Brown says. “So we decided we’d open it up.”

Open? Yes. But wide open? Not by a longshot.

Part of the allure of Clinton is the feeling of treading on unbeaten fairways, where divot holes are nonexistent and to arrive at greens where ballmarks aren’t to be found.

And to that end, the Browns – Steve and son Mike – have decided to limit play by sending only one group off the first tee every 30 minutes.

“Two things [in golf are a problem]: You’ve got to wait, and you’ve got an idiot hitting at you from behind,” Steve Brown says. “And we’re going to try to eliminate that with half-hour times.”

Another benefit is obvious: It will be much easier to keep the course in top condition if workers are dealing with 40 players a day instead of 200.

Steve Brown says the idea to build the course originated the same way it does for most people who undertake that kind of project.

“They get tired of waiting on the tee somewhere and say, ‘I’m gonna go home and build a couple of holes,'” he says.

But after building a few holes, the Browns decided to keep going. … and golfers will be glad they did.

Go to Clinton and you’ll find massive bentgrass tee boxes that are better than some greens. You’ll find (if you’re unlucky) bunkers filled with fluffy sand. And you’ll find immaculate bluegrass fairways that are bordered by plenty of manmade ponds.

And not garden-variety, muck-and-cattail ponds. Ponds that are (get this) actually weeded by the maintenance crew.

You’ll also find a brand new clubhouse that would fit in fine as a coastal bed-and-breakfast (the sofas in the entryway are a nice touch), and a putting green that sits perched in the middle of another of Clinton’s trademark ponds. The walkway up to the clubhouse from the parking lot is also impressive: It features classy stonework you might find on a driveway in the Hamptons.

And the golf? Well, you’ll be hard-pressed to find better … although Steve and Mike Brown won’t come close to telling you that. Both are reluctant to talk about the course much at all, figuring it will sound like bragging.

Luckily, the Browns don’t have to brag: Their course will gladly do all the talking.

From the opening 365-yard par 4 (with a pond that jealously guards the front of the green) to the 398-yard ninth (the pond on this one stretches up the left side of the landing area, presenting a progressively longer carry the further left golfers stray), Clinton is worth the trip. And a return trip. And another.

Some players seem to prefer the sixth, according to Mike Brown, in part because of the narrow 60-yard-long tee box that is bordered on the left and right by robust hosta plants. A pond serves to separate the sixth tee from the nearby eighth tee.

The 346-yard sixth has a severe dogleg to the right, and long tee shots open up an alley to the green. But shorter hitters needn’t fret about laying up to the corner: There’s a hero shot waiting, if you can fly a 160-yarder over the trees on the corner.

“I think it’s the kind of course where a lot of the challenge is getting from the tee to the green,” Mike Brown says. “All the holes are interesting and have challenging shots. There aren’t any throwaway shots. Every shot is important.”

But once you get to the green, he points out, you’ll get a bit of a break.

“I think our greens are fairly forgiving,” Mike Brown says. “They’re pitched, but they’re flat. And they’re not terribly fast. You can make up your strokes on the green.”

After three days as a public course, Clinton wasn’t overrun by players early last week. Mike Brown looks forward to greeting people and hearing what they have to say. But don’t expect him and Steve to relax.

“I guess from our point of view, there are just a million things that we need to do, we want to do,” Mike Brown says. “We’ll just keep doing them. I think the course gets better every day, and we’re doing something every day out here to improve it.”

John Holyoke can be reached at 990-8214, 1-800-310-8600 or by e-mail at jholyoke@bangordailynews.net

Vital Statistics

CLINTON GOLF COURSE

Holes: Nine

Yards: 6,355 yards (two rounds, back tees), 6,005 (middle), 4,695 (front)

Par: 36 (front), 35 (back)

Greens fees: 9 holes: $25; 18 holes: $45

Memberships: None; All daily-fee

Tee times: Strongly suggested

Directions: Take I-95 to Exit 37, turn left if coming from North, right if coming from South, turn left onto Route 100, turn left at four corners, go left at fork (onto Hill Road). Clinton Golf Course is on the left.

Footwear: No metal spikes

Phone: 426-8795