Most mini golfers think the courses are challenging enough, but today there was a new obstacle at the Putt Putt Mini Golf after a car crashed onto the course.
Owner Katie Hickey said there was only superficial damage and the Te Ngae Rd course would be open as usual tomorrow. She had closed and gone home. She and husband Paul were heading back into the city when they saw the aftermath.
"Shock and a sense of panic would be a good way of describing [how I felt]," Mrs Hickey said.
"It would have been my car he'd crashed into if it had been earlier. Out of the whole 18 hole course only two holes have suffered a bit of damage but it's only superficial."
She said the car crashed through holes three and four - the holes where there are the fewest obstacles and trees.
"If he'd come in at a slightly different angle he would have gone through the building."
An Ambulance North Comms spokesman said the male driver was not injured. The crash happened around 5.45pm.
Rotorua man Colin Monk witnessed the crash while working at Jpn Cars on the corner of Te Ngae Rd and Marguerita St.
He said a car turned down Marguerita St, off te Ngae St, and hit the kerb.
Monk said the driver, who was the only occupant in the car, was travelling very slowly and seemed to panic, accelerating quickly across the road and into a fence outside Putt Putt Mini Golf.
The car went through one fence, over a hole on the mini golf course, and stopped halfway through another fence.
Police could not be reached for comment.