Actually, Mike passed this one off to me, since I'm a member at Bulls Bay. I think most of the comments herein about Bulls Bay are accurate. It truly is unlike anything in the Lowcountry, maybe even well beyond. Of the guests I have had out to the course, including many well-traveled golf writers, the word that is most repeated is 'fun.' It is simply a fun course to play, one that you want to play again and again.
As for some of the specific comments, Bulls Bay is golf on a grand scale, if I can use that term. In general, wide fairways lead to large greens. But as Mike Strantz explained, this was a predominantly open site, much of which had been cleared for agriculture. Designing small features within such a broad expanse would not have worked, he said, and once you've seen the site you understand that he is absolutely right. Plus, as has been stated above, the course was designed to play in the constant and most times significant wind that sweeps across the site off of the bay and the Atlantic Ocean. Pete Dye did much the same thing when he built wide fairways at The Ocean Course.
Because the wind is always changing, both in intensity and direction, along the oceanfront and because Bulls Bay requires the player to constantly play to a different compass point (only two consecutie holes, 4-5, play in the same direction), the course needed to be wide. Obviously, with width comes a certain degree of forgiveness, but in a 30-mph wind, you need that. And forgiving or not, the fairways at Bulls Bay still place a premium on placement, since certain angles are more advantageous than others, depending on wind, pin placement and contours.
Width also provides optional routes of attack, something Mackenzie championed and a design characteristic Strantz has embraced throughout his career. Ron Whitten even wrote one time in Golf World that "Not since Mackenzie sketched diagrams of par 4s that were as wide as they were long, and could be played three ways, has any architect shown the chutzpah to let his imagination run wherever the land would take it." That's exactly what Mike did at Bulls Bay.
But again, the design is a function of the site and the wind. And it's the wind that makes the course so much fun to play. A par-five that is a true three-shot hole one day can be a drive and a medium or even short iron the next. And a par-four that was a drive and a pitch one day can require a long-iron approach the next. But even downwind, there is the challenge holding the green, so most greens are designed to accept a variety of shots.
Presently, the course is still undergoing some fine tuning. For example, back tees at the par-four 16th are yet to be built and the clubhouse is under construction (completion expected around the first of the year or shortly after). But even as the tweaking is continuing, we're having a blast playing Bulls Bay. And since Mike and design associate Forrest Fezler live right at the course, I suspect the tweaking will continue for years to come, much like Ross at No. 2 or Mackenzie at Pasatiempo.