Pros:
This is as close to perfection as it gets for a purely wooded course. It's extremely difficult,even from the short pads. It will test every type of shot in your bag inside the trees and requires both pinpoint accuracy and distance off the tee to score. Par is an amazing score here.
Many times, difficult woods courses rely on unfair lines to show their teeth. This course doesn't have anything i'd consider unfair. A few holes have strange lines, but they're plenty fair.
Most holes have multiple tees and multiple pin locations, always a plus!
The property is beautiful. Supposedly it was a private retreat in it's past life. I'm grateful that someone chose to dedicate it to our sport, we're lucky to have it.
Cons:
It's strictly a woods course. I've said in previous reviews that I don't give out anything over a 4.5 for a purely open or a purely wooded course, regardless of how good it is, because the reality is it doesn't test all aspects of your game.
This course isn't accessible for new players. It's not trying to be, clearly. I will never dock points for a course being difficult, but hopefully newer players will choose to go to any of the more accessible Bedford/Roanoke/Lynchburg courses before trying to tame this guy.
There are still some holes that need some tweaking to make them great. Hole 17 is the one that comes to mind for me, but others are still in the process of being tweaked as well. The course is new, and for as new as it is it's in phenomenal shape.
Parking is extremely limited, especially for a tournament scenario. Tee time events can work, but shotgun starts will be tricky to pull off with the current parking capacity.
The 9-hole loops do not intersect at the parking lot/pavilion. For tournament and casual play this is and will always be a minor con in my book. It makes planning drinks difficult, makes planning doubles/weekly events difficult (longer walks to starting holes and back to the parking lot etc...) but again, no points were docked for this. The course DOES loop back, but after only 5 holes.
A few holes have what some people may consider "unnecessary" OB's. This course is tough as it is. It's one of the rare courses that is going to challenge you without anything artificial being added, so the decision to add a few artificial OB's seemed to me to be slightly double-punishment. Hole 18's fence is the only artificial OB that I felt added to the hole in a good way. The artificial island green, the peninsula green, the ob island at the creek hole, all completely unnecessary and detract from an otherwise good course. Others might disagree with me on this but you won't find a single person that will tell you this course is easy, and removing a few artificial OB's isn't going to change their sentiment. This is probably my biggest complaint but is something that is easily remedied, so I'm hoping they consider it in the near future.
Other Thoughts:
This course is the latest addition to the phenomenal list of courses popping up in Southwest Virginia over the past few years. I spent a lot more time on the cons than i did on the pros, but that's just the nature of my review method. The rating I gave it stands on its own.
I can think of only a few purely wooded courses that are up to snuff with this one. It's easily a top 5 wooded course for me along with W. R. Jackson, Lake Claiborne and a few others, though not quite on that same level. Time should only make this course even better!
If you aren't scared of a challenge and want a good workout, don't be afraid, ok maybe slightly afraid, of Venhorst Park!