Brandon Walker's Course Caddy won this year's STARTedUP Challenge Region 4 pitch competition.
Walker of Munster High School said his ball retrieval system serves several purposes, including saved time and environmental impacts.
He plans to sell the technology to golf courses and players who want to save time and money on finding and buying golf balls. He plans to price Course Caddy at $500 each.
He said he will use his $1,000 prize to fund further testing and for future expenses.
Walker was one of 10 regional finalists from Northwest Indiana competing in Region 4 of the 2026 STARTedUP Challenge. The high school pitch competition, formerly known as Innovate WithIN, is in its ninth year of promoting young innovators.
The Northwest Indiana (Region 4) Competition on April 23 was hosted by the Society of Innovators and Purdue University Northwest. Watch the pitches here.
This year's students will compete in seven regions for a chance at a $25,000 prize. One team from each region will be selected to move on to the state finals. Three wildcard teams also will be chosen. Each team advancing to state receives $1,000 for each member up to three students. The 10 teams also will participate in a six-week bootcamp. Finals will take place June 12.
Northwest Indiana finalists who pitched their ideas included:
- Course Caddy: Brandon Walker of Munster High School
- CryoCollar: Kane Tilley of Griffith Senior High School
- Berean Dynamics: Jonathan Lai of Valparaiso High School
- Filet Twist: Cameron Hutson of Hobart High School
- NAM: Aris Koehler, Mason Green & Noah Deeds of Mishawaka High School
- Ready Set Grow Enterprises, LLC: Ethan Hollins of Lake Central High School
- Spider-X: Tyler Triplett of Hanover Central High School
- SunCompute: Kelly Fields of Hanover Central High School
- WeSpeak: Juliet Lux of Lowell Senior High School
- pHemme: Amelie Adam, Karly Pala & Joslyn Burnett of Munster High School
Walker also will participate in the 2026 PNW Big Sell pitch competition on May 2.
Learn more about the Northwest Indiana finalists here. Some of the students in this year's challenge participated in STARTedUP's Innovation Accelerator. The next accelerator starts in August.
