D'andrea Golf

I played D'Andrea on a quick trip to Reno yesterday. Tale of two courses. Front vs back...

The front nine was kind of boring. Every hole was lined with leveled plots of land, waiting for the economy to pick up and homes to be built. So it really felt incomplete and lacked character. The front side was a back and forth design, with holes going up the steep hills, and then coming back down. I thought it was a little redundant at times. Every uphill hole looked and played very similar to each other. The fairways were in good shape, the rough was very thick, and the greens were well guarded by bunkers. But the empty lots were honestly, a buzzkill.

The back nine was a different story. The design was a lot more spread out, and nice new homes filled each and every plot. The back was very hilly as well, and also incorporated a lot more water. This side was very enjoyable, and had a "Vegas" feel to it.

I'm going to give D'Andrea a 3.75 rating. I liked it, and thought it had potential to be really cool if they ever build some homes on the front nine.

The golf course itself is alright if you want to hit a quick 9. Cool elevation changes & great scenery. That's where everything "good" stops really.

I was playing this course frequently due to me living about a mile away. I can say for a fact as I am not the only one that's voiced these frustrations, but the GM of this golf course is absolutely atrocious. It's bad when strangers you meet on the golf course start a conversation with "get a load of that guy."

This final interaction was the final straw however. It started on the second tee box when he came jetting up in his golf cart & immediately started berating myself and my buddy for being too close to the green on the 1st hole. Never mind the fact that we were roughly 25-30 yards away in our cart. Already a little annoyed, but fine. We won't argue it. Just go on about our day.

On the 9th hole, the group was playing extremely slow (not an issue we were enjoying our day) & they asked us to tee off with them to speed play up. Great, why not! We are near the green & here comes the GM whipping around in his golf cart to come over and try to lecture us again.

We were asking about what the difference is in us playing with them & after a little back and forth he ended it with "if you were real golfers you would understand."

We finished the hole out & my buddy wanted to speak with the person at the club house (trailer) to clarify the rules while we paid for the second 9

They start chatting & once again here comes the GM in his golf cart. My buddy then turns around to chat with him directly. He opens up with "hey I'm new. I want to clarify the rules to we can avoid any more of these disagreements." They chat for 30ish seconds and he immediately starts raising his voice and saying we are talking down to him. Even said "I'm the GM of this golf course and I determine how it goes" before trying to turn around and dismiss us.

Again, we have not raised our voice at all. We then say where are you going? We are trying to have an adult conversation with you. He would not acknowledge this & determined we were not welcome there.

That's fine. There are better and cheaper options anyways, but we both found it hilarious that the Marshall and gentleman that came to grab our cart at the car both apologized for their GM's behavior.

I guess this is to be expected from a golf course that only reopened a year ago and has gone through 2 different owners during that time. Unfortunately for both owners they got suckered in to hiring the same GM. Real solid leadership I can tell you.

The course itself is in decent shape, but the surroundings are nothing but depressing.

If you are looking for an example of a builder who screwed up a community, this is it. As you wind your way through a fairly decent course, you will witness hundreds of leveled lots with no houses on them. There are piles of rocks everywhere. It is obvious that the builder simply pulled the plug on this community and stopped all work until the economy improves. Like I said, it's a little depressing.

The course itself is fun, but very quirky. For a stretch of 9 holes you seem to head uphill endlessly which then reverses to 9 holes of downhill shots. Unless you are incredibly accurate, the best advice is to play everything a little shorter and keep it in the fairway. The rough around here is brutal, and the staff advised us not to venture into the weeds for fear of rattle snakes. The course is quite short, so stick to your accuracy game. The greens will hold a shot very well, so don't be afraid to leave yourself a slightly longer approach shot.

I fear this course may not make it through the current real estate crisis. On top of unbuilt lots and ridiculously low prices on new homes, there were numerous existing homes for sale by current owners. They were even offering full memberships for only $1,500. In Northern California, you can't get a membership anywhere for less than $50,000. Best of luck to everyone at D'Andrea.

Nice bar, but the food was quite bland.

I ve lived in D"Andrea since its inception and can honestly say this course has gone down hill considerably. Once Troon dumped the course the conditions turned into a city course. There is vandalism all over the course making for a very unpleasant experience. Watch your cart because I've had items stolen by the neighborhood kids while on the green.

Played this course as part of a golf package through a local Reno resort. The course itself was challenging enough, especially the back nine for me. But the whole operation there was very disappointing. You certainly get the impression that they're running everything on the cheap there and there's not much interest in providing better service. The driving range was a muddy mess that had me covered in mudspots before ever hitting the course. The pro shop was a joke. More like a little closet with a handful of hats and shirts that looked like the stuff no one wanted to buy. I didn't bring a hat, planning to buy one there, and was forced to pay $20 for a hat I didn't even want because it was then only one I could stomach from the pitiful selection. We didn't have a chance to check out the bar/restaurant because there was a wedding going on and we weren't allowed in there. The snack shack in the back had great prices, $2 beers and $2 grilled hotdogs, although the service was on the rude side (you know who you are honey). But my biggest complaint is one of the littlest, most insignificant issues you would ever think of: it was impossible to write on the scorecards with a pencil! The cards are made of some high gloss, plasticized finish that lead pencils simply could not write on. How stupid is that? If I was the General Manager of this place I would have ordered new scorecards the FIRST TIME someone complained about it. But instead they chose to inconvenience every single player every day.