After my stop in Danville, I wasn’t quite finished with my travel/golf day! I got some waters and headed up the road to the small town of Hurt. There lies The Willows at Runk and Pratt, a nine hole course which seemed like it could be a good find.

I’ve tried to mix in more nine hole courses in recent years, and one advantage to checking out these courses is speedier rounds. At most, it seems to take two hours to get around. That is exactly what I needed because it was getting late in the day! I got over to The Willows about 5:30pm and enjoyed a relaxing walk around the course. My ideal pace would have been quicker than two hours, but I didn’t want to press a twosome in front. On a day when I thought it was going to rain, it turned out to be a beautiful evening!

From what I’ve read The Willows has struggled in recent years, which isn’t shocking considering the troubles that plague the game of golf these days. The course was previously known as Altavista County Club and that is what showed up on my golf GPS. I recall hearing about the course re-opening under its new name back in 2016. It seems there are long term plans for a nearby senior living facility, which somehow ties in with the course’s ownership.

The articles that I found about The Willows detail some of the work that has been put into getting the conditions respectable. And, all that work was evident! For my $8 green fee I wasn’t expecting much, however everything was very playable and had a nice, green look. The fairways didn’t have much winterkill and they played better than my pictures show. They could use a haircut but that is about it. The greens were mostly full except for a few brown spots and they rolled well, albeit slow. I was in one bunker and there was plenty of sand for me to blast my shot. Put another way, the conditions won’t keep you from enjoying your round.

I couldn’t find much about the design of The Willows. It appears the course dates back to the 1950’s, so it has some charm. The par-36 isn’t terribly long, playing only 3,233 yards. The course has the traditional setup of two par-3’s and two par -5’s. The blue and white tees are actually the same distance, just mixing up distances throughout the round. The white markers are behind the blue markers on five holes, which I thought was odd! The holes don’t change significantly between the blues and whites so it won’t matter all that much which of the two tees you pick.

The Willows is located on a small piece of land between a hillside and a creek. The clubhouse sits at the highest point so you look out over much of the course from there. From the clubhouse you play across the hill and down into a small valley before getting close to the creek. Then, you play up against the hillside on the last two holes. I was impressed with the routing considering the terrain! There was adequate space between holes and just enough different lies to offer a test, without being silly.

Besides the uneven lies the other difficulty is going to be navigating the green complexes. Generally speaking, the greens are smaller and proved tough to hit without a laser iron shot. The greens slope from back to front and fall off on many sides. Still, thanks to a begin design from tee to green you shouldn’t lose many golf balls! I found it to be a comfortable driving course and it shows with a rating of 71.3 and a slope of 122.

I don’t think there is a signature hole at The Willows, but a couple sections of the course were looking sharp in the evening shadows! The 2nd is a 175/160 yard par-3 that is at the corner of the property. The green is next to a small lake and from there you can see the 1st and the 3rd holes. The par-4 6th was also looking great with the sunlight hitting a hazard next to that green.

I ended up liking The Willows, mainly because the course was in good shape and I could freely swing the driver. If you are looking to play while driving along US 29 I’d steer you towards Lynchburg or Charlottesville. However, if you only have time for nine holes then The Willows wouldn’t be a bad choice.

Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):