I didn't want to start a new topic for this, but I did want to comment. my father and I both had the good fortune to play Bulls Bay today and even though the temperature hung all day in the 40s and rain increased from random drops to a steady cold rain over the course of the round, every single hole was a new visual bit of intrigue. The fairways are humongous and let everyone swing away off of most tees, which I enjoyed, especially since it became clear on most holes that one region of fairway is preferable on each hole. The greens ranged from the very austere 1st green to the enormous 11th, which I found to be a new wrinkle in the Strantz skill set--on the other courses I've played of his, the greens are all big to very, very big.
The green complexes at Bulls Bay, I thought, were excellent. Almost all of them are approachable from the ground (especially since the club does not foolishly overseed the fairways and therefore presents a great winter playing surface!) and a lot of them have great backboards and side boards. I could spend an hour or more goofing around at most of them.
A couple questions for those who have played the course:
1. What do you think of the par-5 13th hole? It was the hole I loved the least; still not a bad hole by any sretch. I just found the right turnaround the trees and the creek towards the green to be a bit abrupt. It seems like the player is generally confined to hitting a layup shot to the elbow but cannot reasonably try and hit a layup within 100 yards or so.
2. I played the Maverick tees today and found that on the five par 3s, I hit four 6-irons and one 5-iron. Part of this was probably due to the assortment of hole locations and the weather, but I found this interesting. What's the club assortment like from the other tee sets on the par 3s for people? Even though they were of fairly similar length, the look of each was different from each other, which I definitely appreciated.
All in all, Bulls Bay was an absolute treat and I feel as though I could play it most every day and not grow tired of it. Easily the best course I've played this year!
Cheers.