COURSE + GROUNDS
STAYING IN AT FIRST GLANCE, THE MIDLANDS region of South Carolina might be not be regarded as a top golfing destination. Those in the know, however, might say otherwise. The award-winning golf course at Orangeburg (S.C.) Country Club (OCC), originally designed by Ellis Maples in 1961 and renovated in 2009 by Pinehurst, N.C., golf course architect Richard Mandell, consistently ranks as one of the best in the state. Among its many accolades, Orangeburg CC was named one of the Top 30 Golf Courses by the South Carolina Golf Course Ratings Panel (SCGCRP)—a group of 100 golf media, avid players, and industry insiders—in 2019. The property also garnered national attention that year, landing on the Golfweek 2019 Ultimate Guide of the nation’s Top 200 Residential Golf Courses. The golf course continued its award-winning streak in 2020, when the SCGCRP split up its rankings into classic (designed and created before 1980) and modern categories, to better reflect the type of courses built during each era. Competing with its statewide peers, OCC took the No. 9 spot in the inaugural list of Top 20 Classic Courses. The SCGCRP 50
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also placed Orangeburg at No. 43 of its Top 50 Golf Courses in South Carolina, and the Golfweek Ultimate Guide again ranked the property in its Top 200 Residential Golf Courses. The ratings panel also named Orangeburg’s par-5 No. 18 as the state’s “Most Challenging Finishing Hole” in the Midlands in 2014. “We’re well-known in South Carolina for [that] hole,” says Superintendent Alex Tolbert. With the 137-acre golf course located on the Edisto River, No. 18 runs parallel to the water. “We strive to have the best golf course in South Carolina,” notes General Manager Randy Carter, a 30-year Orangeburg resident who has been at the facility for eight months. “We have won a lot of awards through the years, and we just try to live up to that every day.” However, it’s not just Orangeburg members and their fellow South Carolinians who appreciate the golf course at the private facility. As part of the Golf Santee tourism promotion, the property offers package play for non-members as well. Located halfway between New York and Florida, the course attracts many golfers from Canada and the northeast U.S. www.clubandresortbusiness.com
