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Orangeburg, SC

Edisto Memorial Gardens DGC

2.835(based on 3 reviews)
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Edisto Memorial Gardens DGC reviews

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4 0
DiscGolfCraig
Diamond level trusted reviewer
Premium Member
Experience: 20 years 602 played 545 reviews
2.50 star(s)

Orange you wishing for improvement? Edisto necessary. 2+ years

Reviewed: Updated: Played on:Aug 18, 2018 Played the course:2-4 times

Pros:

Edisto Memorial is oh-so-close to being a good, fun, and challenging course. It's the colleague or family member who is usually pleasant, only to let you down and remind you why don't spend more time with them.
- In and of itself, most of the holes here are good. You buy all the right ingredients. However, you entrust someone who can't cook, and you don't end up with cake.
- This course is one of the best examples of the how enjoyable minimalist disc golf can be. Just a handful of trees and strategically placed tees and baskets can create a wonderful disc golf hole. #4 is one of the most challenging, nerve wracking tee shots I've ever played where there's not a tree in the fairway and only a single, narrow creek along the side. The caveat is the creek is black, dirty water so any disc in there is close to gone. I landed on the other side of the creek saw my disc, and still had a 15-minute round trip to get there, retrieve it, and get back.
- Variety. Yes. A flat-course with minimal trees can have variety. You can tell thought was put into the original layout of this course. You can be airing out a driver on one hole, then be throwing a big hyzer the next hole.
- Course is ripe for aggressive play. You'll get rewarded for being on the correct side of the risk/reward quotient. You will, however, be penalized for being overly aggressive on the wrong holes, retrieving discs from the black creek (#4 & 7), or the thick underbrush/tall stuff.
- Mound holes. Two baskets on artificially created hills - #7 & 11. #7 is one of the two or three best on the course. A 285-foot, dogleg right, starting in the woods with thick rough/woods along the right side of the fairway. Play safe by throwing straight. The closer to the right your tee shot is, the closer to the basket you'll be. Play it safe and it's a simple par 3. Play aggressive and you're looking at a birdie chance, or a search in the woods for your disc.
- #18 is a very good closing hole, epitomizing the entire round. At 540 feet, you can air it out across an open field. Hole makes a near 90-degree turn at the top of a slight ridge to the basket, with thick stuff along the right side the entire length of the hole. Have your tee shot sail too far right and you've given yourself a difficult-to-nearly impossible angle to get anywhere close to the basket in 2. Another of the course's top handful of holes.

Cons:

Navigation sucks. It's as if they want you to get lost. Some holes have tee signs and/or hole numbers. Some don't. Some have hole numbers for a temporary/tourney layout. Some have both. By the time you're at hole #2, it's temporary tourney hole #4. Huh?
- There isn't a hint of navigational guidance throughout. With 18 tees and 18 baskets, one could figure it out relatively easy. However, there are random extinct and/or not currently used tee pads throughout.
- On top of that, several tee pads aren't facing the right direction. On top of THAT, the baskets don't have hole numbers. Or, if they do, they're not usually correct. On hole #11, I have 250 feet to the basket. I look one direction and see a basket about that far away. Having just come from that direction, I know the closest tee pad to that basket is #18. Hmmm, I wouldn't go from #11 to 18, so that must be the wrong direction. So, I turn around, and see a basket in the opposite direction. That basket is further than 250 (closer to 400 - 500), plus I'm throwing over the service road. That direction, however has the next handful of baskets (#12 - 17). Which way do you throw?
- There's standing water on the front 9. Basically, this water never drains, so be extra careful on #4.
- On #9, I never found the basket. The only basket I did find anywhere back here is the previously mentioned is-it-or-is-it-not #11.

Other Thoughts:

Edisto Memorial Gardens is definitely a parts are greater than the sum type of course. I enjoy many of the holes here, that I keep overlooking the frustration between the long, criss-crossing walks, the horrific navigation, the 'where to throw' aspect, and everything else.
- If I hadn't played this course several other times over the years, I'd have quit after hole 5. I was able to mostly navigate based on memory. That said the course has been tinkered with too many times that I still need to do lots of extra walking/scouting.
- Why are there more signs for a temporary, once-a-year layout than there are for the permanent course? Why no course map yet from the local club? I still have a feeling I played to at least one wrong basket.
- Orangeburg has a contentious past with civil rights and racial injustice. See the 1968 Orangeburg Massacre for proof. And no, I didn't know about this either until recently. Good job history books. That said, because of that past, having a basket on hole #1 is unacceptable. Does anybody here know how to hang something so it's not a noose hanging from a tree? I'm far from a bleeding heart, but even I knew this was stupid and in poor taste.
- The open field holes are prone to cross winds. Only an issue for the holes where water or the road may be a factor.
- I was frustrated during my round trying to navigate the course. And once again, I'm ready to give this course a try. It's an excellent course that's brought down by simple solutions - arrows, course map, tee signs, several redesigned layouts.
- This is a 3.5 rated course brought down by ineptitude. For any first timer, it plays like a 1.5 - 2, if you even make it through all 18. I don't think any rating properly fits the course in its current design. So, I'm calling it a 2.5. Let's hope the local scene gives it a little TLC.
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2 0
Jonathan K.
Experience: 11.7 years 94 played 7 reviews
3.00 star(s)

Good, but could be better 2+ years

Reviewed: Played on:Feb 7, 2017 Played the course:once

Pros:

-Decent mix of open and moderately wooded holes, and some water.
-Dual tee pads allow for airing it out some on longer holes.
-Playing around an abandoned house was interesting!

Cons:

-Tee-signs are just a hole number, and distance to basket. There is no drawing to assist you in locating the basket.
-Apparently the course is built on top of an old garbage dump. A lot of the grounds were quite bumpy and uneven. Grass height wasn't too bad in Feb., but the local I ended up playing with said that the city is sometimes slack about mowing, so....

Other Thoughts:

I stopped by on the way back to NC from Florida just to break up the trip and get some fresh air. Luckily a local pulled up just as I got there and invited me to play with him. I say luckily because in some areas there were several baskets in the same vicinity and I wouldn't have had any idea which to throw to since the tee signs didn't have any hole drawings. There also weren't any Next Tee signs on the baskets to give guidance on where to go.

I think that with a little work this could get up to a 4 star course. There were also 3 or 4 holes where water came in to play, and these aren't mentioned in Course Info or Hole Info. These should be updated. (I've updated to show water on Hole 4, but I can't remember exactly which other holes had water, but one was a river just beyond the basket, and then the river to the left of the fairway on the next hole.)
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3 0
nwdiscgolf58
Experience: 22.1 years 19 played 2 reviews
3.00 star(s)

Nice lowland course! 2+ years drive by

Reviewed: Updated: Played on:May 5, 2016 Played the course:5+ times

Pros:

Rarely crowded and located in an area dedicated solely to disc golf with no interference from other park visitors. The parks department seems to keep the course mowed pretty nicely.

New 18 hole layout removed holes in the lower areas where the fairways and baskets were quite often affected by standing waters. Some fun holes with a few mandos and multiple ace opportunities. Without any elevation to mix in, the woods and water are used well to make the course reasonably challenging.

Hole #15 requires you to u-turn 505 feet all the way around an old house in the middle of the fairway in order to come back to the basket which can be seen directly to your left when standing on the tee pad. In a twist of historical irony, I was told by a long-time local that this structure is believed to be haunted by the ghost of a crazy lady that was well known for getting pissed off at her husband and then chasing him out of that house and off the property by throwing plates at him.

Cons:

It's a shame this course isn't on higher ground, many of the holes that had to be removed were some of the more challenging ones as they were in the wooded area in the front. I've seen some of the early pictures when the course was more manicured and picturesque. Not quite so much anymore but I guess that makes sense because of how many times it got flooded and the landscaping probably got washed away.

Also, it would be nice if there were somewhere in Orangeburg to purchase discs but I have not been able to find anyone.

Other Thoughts:

Worth a play for sure and then swing by the Edisto Creamery across the street for some nice milk shakes and pretty darned good hot-dogs!
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