Golfers know the "rough," the ugly part of any championship course where the hazards of thick grass, bushes and trees are best avoided. Not so in the world of miniature golf.

At Island Adventure Golf, a new 18-hole miniature golf course at Hawaiian Waters Adventure Park, the rough is the best part of what has been described as "high-end adventure putting."

The $1 million course features water hazards that let you float your ball toward the cup, curving fairways that bank like a turn at the Daytona International Speedway, and menacing tikis with long wooden tongues.

And while there are no windmills, there are plenty of similarly hokey decorations, including plastic fish, a canoe and halved surfboards standing upright like tombstones.

The course is open daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. But this is concrete in Kapolei, so it's probably best to consider a round in the evening, when the temperatures are more forgiving.

Still, 12-year-old buddies Shawne Hampton and Chayse Antonio braved the heat, sunburns and bogey burnout on a recent afternoon as they toured the course for the first time.

"It's fun," said Hampton, who lives in 'Ewa. "There's stuff popping out of the middle of the course."

Antonio liked that, too.

"It's challenging," said Antonio, who lives in Nanakuli. "It get all those lumps. It get all those hills and big holes."

But putting a golf ball is not as easy as Tiger Woods makes it look.

"Sometimes you hit it too hard," Antonio said, "and it goes flying off the course."

Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com.