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.

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.

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.