It is a nice, warm Friday night, and you are with your friends having a good time filled with laughter and joy as you spend time together outside doing something affordable.
This is what a great Friday night could be if Starkville had a putt-putt course for college students to have fun on.
In the city of Starkville, there is a movie theatre, which can be very expensive if you get a ticket and concessions, a roller-skating rink and bars to waste the restless hours of the weekend away. However, there is one thing we are missing, which is a must-have for every college town: a miniature golf course.
The closest mini golf courses are in Saltillo and Flowood, which are respectively an hour and a half away. These are too far away for a college student to go to for it to be worth the time and cost of gas for cheap fun. You would end up spending more on gas than in putt-putt rounds.
Every town with an SEC school has a mini golf course, either in the town or about 30 minutes away from campus, except the University of Missouri and Mississippi State University. Thank goodness for Missouri, so we do not have to be the only university without one.
Even Arkansas and Ole Miss have a mini golf course; do we really want to TSUN or Arkansas to beat us in any category?
I know for a fact Las Vegas has mini golf courses, so we need to change something if we actually want to live up to the nickname, ‘Starkvegas.’
For students looking for a cheap date night or a way to spend time with friends, a mini golf course is one of the best ways to spend less money for more fun. Starkville is a college town filled with young adults looking for fun things to do on the weekend.
A mini golf course could see tons of customers in college students alone, then factor in Starkville families, as well customers in the Golden Triangle area willing to drive from Columbus or West Point for something cheap and fun.  
From a financial side of things, it is a grand slam, and the costs of construction or renting out a location are simple upfront costs. According to an article on CNN Money, the average cost of starting a mini golf course is just $150,000 to $250,000.
Other than maintenance and labor costs, there are not too many other things you have to worry about when it comes to mini golf.
As a city, it could bring in a lot of revenue, especially if it had a bar for the adults on weekends. According to an article on Business Town, a typical round of mini golf costs anywhere between $5-$12 per round, and you could make $70,000-$170,000 annually from sales. Just imagine if you included alcohol sales in this, too. The city could benefit from this because the sales tax on alcohol is seven percent.
It would be interesting to see the PGA Management program or the College of Business work with the city on maybe assisting in running the mini golf course. The university and the city of Starkville need to work together on this because it would benefit both the students and the city.
The more the city and MSU invest in each other, the better it is for the people who call this place home, whether it be for just for four or 20 years. Everyone can benefit from a putt-putt course in Starkville.