PORTAGE, Wis. - Jim and Joyce Martin started in 1995 with a putting green. Then they added a tee box.

Eight holes and two years later, the Martins had a 2,933-yard, par-34 golf course right outside their front door, three miles west of Portage on Hwy. 127.

The Martins will soon find out what someone is willing to pay for a private retreat that features tree-lined fairways, bentgrass greens, an extensive irrigation system and no worries about tee times.

The 42-acre course the Martins had been trying to sell themselves for about $795,000 will be put up for auction Friday. The minimum bid is $250,000.

"I wouldn't like to sell it at that, but that's what's attracting them," Martin said of potential buyers. "People are not wanting to spend money (because of the recession), but I hope we're coming out of that."

And for whomever comes away with the winning bid, the costs won't end with the sale price. Maintenance to keep the course looking like a golf course instead of a farm field with yellow flags runs about $45,000 a year. The property comes with tractors, mowers, rollers and sprayers. The lone greenskeeper works on a contracted basis and charges $2,000 for every 80 hours worked, Martin said.

The buyer could keep the property as is or convert it to a public course. Martin also is willing to sell land adjacent to the course if the buyer wants to expand the course to 18 holes.

"Is it the right time? No matter when you sell something, you don't know if it's the right time," said Travis Hamele of Hamele Auction Service of Pardeeville. "The time is when someone decides to sell and someone decides to buy. There's still money out there."

Hamele is working with Albert Burney Luxury Real Estate Auctioneers of Gadsden, Ala., to market the course. The company last month sold at auction 350 acres along the Molalla River in Oregon for $2.1 million. The sale attracted 13 bidders. Another September auction surpassed the seller's minimum acceptable bid by 40 percent. The 104-acre Sage Ridge Ranch in Carmel, Calif., sold for $1.4 million and included a citrus grove and vineyard.

Potential bidders for Martin's golf course have expressed interest from as far away as Florida and as close as Portage.

"Interest has not been exactly what we had hoped for, but I think it will be a great deal for whoever shows up," said Steve Lister, chief auctioneer for Albert Burney.

Martin estimates he has invested more than $800,000 in the golf course. There is room for the buyer to build a clubhouse and the potential for limited home sites.

"There's some real nice building sites," Jim Martin said.

Martin, 75, grew up in Portage and worked for the Wisconsin State Patrol where he at one time was the driver for Govs. Gaylord Nelson and John Reynolds. In 1960, he started Martin Security, providing security guards at industrial sites and at strikes in the Janesville area. Martin eventually left the State Patrol. Over the years, his company grew to more than 400 employees with contracted sites around the country.

In the mid-1970s, Martin began buying land west of Portage and eventually turned much of it into a hunting club. Lodges were added in the 1980s and the facility hosted corporate retreats and hunting and fishing excursions on 220 acres. Starting in 1997, the guests also had access to the golf course.

Martin, who suffers from emphysema, sold the hunt and fish club and his security company in 2005. The golf course sale does not include the home the Martins built in 1990 or the small cemetery on the north side of the first-hole green where four family members, eight hunting dogs and Pacer, a 37-year-old horse, are buried. The Martins also plan to be buried in the cemetery.

"It was kind of a hobby," Martin said of the course. "It turned out to be kind of a picture-perfect place."