Pros:
+ The whole course is a nice nature walk among tall trees, relaxing paths and welcoming fields.
+ A few worthy elevation challenges among fun tree puzzles.
+ Welcome board has tons of info, a map and paper score cards.
+ Tees have wooden leads with carved-in link#, distance and par, but...
Cons:
-/+ ...The tee pads are exclusively rubber, and among them some are kind of flimsy.
- No proper tee signs: just numbered markers glued to thin wooden planks.
- I didn't see/notice a lost disc box or practice basket.
-/+ Baskets are kind of weak and outdated but passable and numbered.
Other Thoughts:
The disc golf course at Prince Gallitzin State Park is one of those courses that is equal parts fun challenge and peaceful experience. That challenge definitely presents itself with working through woods, so the big arms will have to take it down a notch. That peaceful experience comes into focus considering the natural and relatively undisturbed wilderness of the course.
Link16 has a good example of that. All along the left side of the fairway is a shadowy and serene valley with a brook running along the bottom. The player gets a pleasant, if somewhat spooky, sense of isolation there. Earlier in between links2 and 3, the player can take a small walking detour to the nearby Glendale Lake. Walk on the dock. Look around. Enjoy the natural splendor. Glimpse all of the campers enjoying an aimless day around their tents. And then get back to your round.
So, how does the course play? For the most part, it offers a healthy challenge that doesn't frustrate too much. Most of the fairways hide the basket from view, so the player will have to risk their first throw as they set off, but the fairways are clean and obvious enough that I don't feel that is a negative. For a mostly wooded course, I was surprised by the distances some of these fairways have. Links7 and 9 are pretty long and possibly the most demanding of the course. Honorable mention to link17 for being a satisfying par5 with a pleasant downhill tee off and sharp right turn to manage. That one was fun.
But I think the star of the show is link11. It's one of the shortest fairways of the whole course, but it packs such a wallop as far as elevation, trees and natural beauty are concerned that I couldn't help feeling enchanted by it. What a lovely valley. What sneaky trees. Link12 is the same way, but 11 hits harder because it is the very first real instance of elevation that the player encounters.
Just before it, link10 is easily my least favorite. 729 feet of nothing but wide-open flat flinging until the last few yards? No thanks. Link5 is no winner, either, but at least that one is half the distance. Since I've entered criticism territory, I'll mention the insufficient tee signs again because they don't feature layouts of the fairway ahead. The tee pads are lumpy rubber. However, in a rustic natural setting like this one, they might be just fine, who knows? A few of the fairways feel like filler, too, but they are at least worthwhile to play.
The whole course is worth your while, though. Prince Gallitzin isn't glitzy, but it isn't chintzy, either. Come here for the nature, which also happens to have a respectable circuit of eighteen disc golf fairways to add an easy-going layer of challenge to your day. Recommended.