Pros:
-Hiking trip gets cancelled, day off of work. Should be doing some homework. Let's go to West Virginia! This is a good debut course to start your list of courses you play in West Virginia. Front nine plays on a mountain. Back nine plays back in the general park area. The front nine's entire look made this a new disc golf experience for me because of the different mountains, the different looks of the trees, and the sedimentary rock fairway on #7 made that hole look like you were throwing into a parking garage. This was a new location for me, a North Carolina resident that by the way, resides in the NC mountains.
-On a few holes on the front nine, you'll feel like you are in the middle of a camping trip and are many miles away from civilization. Nope. Many restaurants nearby. Crazy how the look and feel can dramatically change. One moment, you are on a hiking trip, then you are back in a local park in the middle of Princeton.
-Now onto the holes. You'll see some very neat holes here. If you aren't close to here, you'll understand that the game has some different variations. #6 is off a small cliff and over a path. #7 is on the top of the cliff on sediment ground playing up and back down a small mound. #10 is a short and slightly downhill par three back in the open. You REALLY want to be wide right off the pad since the hill you throw down remains flat on the left side as it declines straight ahead. If you go left, you'll either hit the side of the declining hill left of the basket and roll a long way and settle with a par, or you'll be left with an extremely difficult steep downhill putt. Either way, left is no good on this hole.
-#9. Yes the designer's least favorite hole is my favorite hole. I absolutely loved the split fairway valley on the edge of the woods here. In my opinion this is the best looking hole at Princeton. Super fun midrange shot that plays as a gentle hyzer. You go too far right, you could catch a VERY bad roller and be kicked out of the woods and be left pitching back in there.
-There's a swimming pool with a HUGE slide. Ten feet deep and the top of the slide is probably 30' high. I can't remember about how high. Just a random guess but high enough to call this a possible tourist attraction.
-Two sets of pads. The blues are a little bit tougher but are still very shreddable. Even par would probably be around 920 from the blues and there are a few holes that the open division with an average of 970 would probably score over par on (#2, 5, 11, and maybe 16) but it's mostly because of how meticulous they are. Even shorter holes such as #18 can mess up your score since the basket is on a big and steep drop off while the fairway is entirely flat. Many holes you can bounce back on for birdie. Distance is not much of an obstacle as far as caution.
Cons:
-Elevation changes given in the hole info do not seem right. Says that #15 has a 55 foot elevation loss and there's no way. #16's pad is below #15's basket in topography and you throw back up the hill on #16 and it says the elevation increase is 25 feet (that I believe). I think #15's loss is maybe just past the 20' mark. There were others. For instance #8. Definitely not 30' down. The decline is very slight. Course has a hilly terrain, yes, a couple of holes probably do exceed over 30' in elevation change. But if you see the pictures on the media, you won't see as much elevation as the signs indicate.
-#11. Not a fan of the triple mando "C shaped") par three. It's memorable, but very weird. There's three mando trees that all point left. Definitely a cut roller hole but I'm not fond of having that as the default option off of a pad. I think that should be an alternate option or the optimal option if you land in a bad lie. Not fond of #15 either. It's a boring downhill toss. Only 145' long around a wide cluster of trees. #15 is probably my least favorite hole here.
-Not a fully defined fairway on #5 from the long. Nice arch by the basket though!
-Seems to lose flavor and its perks after #13. The last five holes were not my meaning of fun. You might like throwing over the garden on #14 or the ace run opportunity on #15 and the danger on #18 but I enjoyed the front nine a lot more than the back.
Other Thoughts:
-When I arrived, the main entrance was closed so I turned around and looked for another way to get in. There is a huge parking lot further down the road parallel to the main entrance. I parked in that lot and walked up the steep hill that was #17's fairway. Just park there. You'll drive past a few buildings. It was a bit of a walk to the first hole but wasn't too bad.
-I really loved Glenwood. I read the designer's review and I thought it was better than that. It's very well thought out and highly pleasing. The baskets were in the longs when I played there and that was a 3.5 hour drive that I'd recommend to anyone. This course (Princeton) is a nice second course in the town of Princeton WV. You won't see the variety that you'll see at Glenwood, but this place is very neat. It's a good little course with some distinctiveness and quality. Out of town players will appreciate the difference in appearance and design from their home courses.