D'Andrea Golf Club is located just 10 minutes from downtown Reno, in the mountainous foothills on the East side of Sparks. I played this course a few years back in a tournament and was looking forward to playing the course on my own. I remember the course being beautiful with plenty of elevation changes.

My goal was to take advantage of more open fairways, a longer course, and a course that wasn't going to demand such accurate shots as the courses I have played the past few weeks. For the average golfer to enjoy their round, the suggested tees are the silver tees.

Starting to feel some confidence in my playing of late, I decided to step back from the suggested silver tees and attempt to play from the gold tees.

•The first hole is a 404-yard par 4 slightly uphill with a good-sized fairway. The fairway slopes left to right and you want to hit your tee shot middle to left side of the fairway for a nice open approach shot to the green. I hit my tee shot low but down the middle of the fairway. The green is elevated, with bunkers on the right side and rough in front. My second shot was to the front part of the green. The green is long with a hill in the middle, so knowing pin placement prior to your approach shot is very important as you do not want to be on the wrong side of the green. On this day I found myself on the wrong side, leaving for some difficult putting. I three putted for a bogey.

•Hole No. 6 is the signature hole on the course. It is a 162-yard par 3 over water. The green has bunkers on the left and back sides with water to the right leaving no safe landing area other than the green. The pin placement was on the right side of the green just daring me to hit directly at the pin. My tee shot went right and into the water. Fearing the water, I hit my second ball to the left side of the green into the bunker. The green is fairly long and narrow and slopes to the water. I was able to hit a nice recovery shot out of the bunker and make my putt to secure five on the hole.

Hole No. 9 is the number one handicap hole on the course. It is a 405-yard par 4 from an elevated tee box. The fairway has a lot of rough with bunkers on the middle/right part of the fairway, dividing the fairway into two sections. To the right of the bunkers is a very narrow landing area, with a larger area to the left of the bunkers. The wise shot is to the left of the bunkers, leaving your second shot up to an elevated green. I hit a nice tee shot but too far left up into the mountain side. With my second shot, I attempted to just hit my ball out into the fairway to give myself a shot at the green on my next hit. I was able to hit my shot back into the fairway, but gave myself a tough shot over the bunker into the green. My next shot was to the left front just short of the green, allowing my ball to roll back down the hill back into the rough. You do not want to come up short on your shot to the green. With that, I made sure I did not come up short again, hitting my chip shot into the green too hard and my ball rolled off the back of the green. Butchering the hole, I finally finished with an eight.

After a humbling front nine, I decided to change from the gold to the suggested silver tees.

•Hole No. 10 is a 372-yard par 4 with a blind uphill tee shot with rough to the right. You want to hit your tee shot at the marker in the middle of the fairway. I hit a nice tee shot up the right side of the fairway. The fairway opens nicely as long as you clear the rough on the right side. The middle of the fairway gives you a nice open approach shot to a small green which is guarded by bunkers on both the front left and right sides with rough in front.

Knowledge of pin placement makes your approach shot critical as you do not want to go long over the green which has a decent drop off on the back side. My second shot was long and to the left, but not over the drop off. The green has a valley through the middle so if your approach shot is to the wrong part of the green, you will have to putt down and back up the hill in the green. I three putted once again for a bogey.

•The day finishes with the number 2 handicap hole on the course. Hole No. 18 is a 434-yard par 4. The hole is a dogleg right with mountains and rough terrain on the right and a fairly wide open fairway. You want to hit your tee shot middle to left side of the fairway. I was able to hit a nice tee shot down the left side, but too far left and into the rough. With my second shot, I had to lay up to give myself a good shot into the green. The green is elevated, which is well protected with bunkers on the front left and back right sides. My third shot I hit a chip shot up to the front left side of the green. The green is a big open green that slopes from the middle to the back and front, making your approach shot critical to the proper section of the green. The green breaks right to left and was one of the only greens on the day I seemed to be near the proper place, allowing me to two putt for a final bogey on the day.

Starting the day playing from the gold tees proved to be a mistake since I changed to the silver tees for the back nine. That made the round far more enjoyable. As I found out, the course was more intimidating than I had expected. We were advised prior to playing, the course had fast greens, and due to this, we did not want to "hit at the pin" with our approach shots. Little did I know how true this was.

The fairways were pretty open, and the greens were big and fast with varying degrees of slopes throughout. A golfer needs to pay close attention to the pin locations for the day. The biggest factor is the approach shot into the green, where just hitting the green is not enough. You have to be on the correct side of the green to score.

Looking back, the biggest mistake I made was not taking advantage of the information provided by my golf cart. It was not until after we finished our round when I noticed the pin location chart in the cart which shows each green and what area of the green the pin is located. Had I paid attention to this, I might have been able to hit better approach shots into the green.

The other trouble I seemed to run into was playing the front nine from the wrong tee box for my ability. From the gold tees, it seemed most of the trouble facing you on tee shots were about 235-265 yards out. I usually hit my tee shots around 250 yards, thus I always seemed to find trouble even though I was hitting the ball well.

This course is a nice course at the base of the mountains with some great views of the Sierra Mountains and Reno valley. The designers did a good job of making the course challenging. The course has plenty of elevation changes and the greens are fast and challenging due to the many slopes and angles. The keys to this course, without any doubt, are your approach shots into the greens. D'Andrea is not the typical course where just hitting the green is good enough. You will have to know the pin placement and hit your ball to the correct part of the green in order to give yourself an opportunity to score.

D'Andrea is a very nice course which allows the more advanced golfers to test their ability, as the course challenges you with the many elevation changes and the fast greens with the various slopes and angles. The course is in great shape. The greens were fast and get ready for plenty of elevation changes, even on the greens.