WEST ENFIELD – It’s a fun place to play, but perhaps the nicest thing a golf purist could say about Green Valley Golf Course is that it’s cheap.

Except for the greens, its grass until recently was an undifferentiated cut. The 9-hole course is very wet, even for Northern Maine, but its fairway growth is still thin. Green Valley’s overall layout is almost confusing due to the lack of yardage markers and distinct fairways. Weeds proliferate except on the greens, which are occasionally scarred, and the traps feature sand that’s more like clay. The course’s driving range is little more than an open field.

Tell this to new course owners Michael and Nickole Clendenning and they say, wait ’til next year.

Although the Hampden couple just bought the Route 2 business on Aug. 8 for about $400,000, the two have already begun to make changes that they say will turn a fun, casual golf course – $10 for 9 holes and $15 for 18 – into something much classier.

“I want it to still be inexpensive, but I also want people to say, ‘Wow, this is a great value,'” Michael Clendenning said. “You might see a 10 percent increase [in costs] across the board, but it will be the best 10 percent increase anybody’s ever put down to play golf.”

Among the changes they plan over the next year:

. A substantial upgrade to the course playing surface, including three or four cuts of grass that will differentiate the greens, fairways and roughs; new bunker sand; improved drainage; more yardage markers; improved pond aeration; level tee boxes and improved fairways; and the end of the broad-leafed weeds.

“There will be lots of flower beds, and they will be intentionally planted, as forth to the wild variety that is all around the course now,” Nickole Clendenning said impishly.

New grass cutting equipment purchased recently, with more arriving next week, has allowed Clendenning to start marking and cutting fairways, with results already visible.

. A full pro shop featuring club repair and equipment from Golf Country, the retail store the Clendennings co-own in Bangor, and possibly a restaurant in the clubhouse.

. A full-service driving range with measured targeting, chipping areas, and improvements to the range’s existing green.

. New roofed motorized golf carts and three-wheeled push carts for sale and rent.

Clendenning said he feels the changes will complement rather than compete with the course nearest Green Valley, JaTo Highlands Golf Course of Lincoln, an opinion shared by JaTo general manager Eric Dubay.

Green Valley’s new ownership and planned changes are “pretty exciting because obviously in the past we have worked with [Green Valley’s previous owners], hosting tournaments on separate dates, and I know Mike and Nicki, and we plan on doing the same thing with them,” Dubay said.

“It’s truthfully two completely different golf courses, so we give people a choice as to where and how they would like to play,” he added.

Unlike Green Valley, which is largely flat, JaTo is an 18-hole course that offers hillsides, domed greens and thick but well-maintained roughs and fairways. The Town Farm Road course also has a pro shop, driving range and practice green.

At $15 for 9 holes and $25 for 18, its prices are comparable to Green Valley’s, and both courses have golf pros – Clendenning at Green Valley and Jaymis Dugans, Nickole Clendenning’s cousin, at JaTo.

JaTo also is planning its own improvements, Dubay said, including a new clubhouse with restaurant, and reworked landscaping on the 18th tee, 17th green, new drainage and bunkers on the 15th hole, and an expanded 10th hole.

“We try to tackle a few issues every year,” Dubay said. “We are constantly trying to make things better.”

JaTo has abut 110 members and about 60 players a day, while Green Valley has 108 members and 40 visitors on an average day.

The course is the first owned by the Clendennings, although Michael Clendenning has worked at several golf courses around the state and in North Carolina as a general manager and superintendent, he said.

Clendenning was drawn to the area because his wife is from Howland, he said.

“We looked at a lot of places around the state, but when you come to the Lincoln area, everyone is very positive about the local economy,” he said. “They seem to worry about it a lot less than anybody else.”

Dubay agreed. Despite a soggy spring, JaTo traffic was up about 40 percent in June and August more than in any summer since the course opened in 1999, he said.

“This town more than any other north of Bangor is growing. You can see that every day,” he said. “I believe it is becoming a hub and a suburban area for Bangor.”