Francis Byrne Wears the Crown

This week: The Race for the Crown has its champion. Francis A. Byrne took the 2026 bracket going away — 140 votes over Neshanic Valley in the final. Mike and Austin punched their ticket to the four-ball championship for a fourth straight year. Scott Fawcett returned to break down why you're leaking strokes before you swing. And Mark Bryson pulled back the curtain on what it takes to run Jumping Brook, coach Division I women's golf at Monmouth, and still keep his sanity. Big week. Bigger season ahead.

— The DROP Podcast

#GolfingInTheGardenState

Four years. Four brackets. Four different champions. Francis A. Byrne Golf Course joins Seaview Bay, Ballyowen, and Somerset Hills as a Race for the Crown winner — and it wasn't close. The final against Neshanic Valley ended with a 140-vote margin, the most lopsided championship result in the bracket's history. Mike has been beating this drum since long before the bracket started. On Tuesday, the audience confirmed it.

Credit to the Francis Byrne crew. Zach Ebel, the GM, finished second in the bracket challenge. Tim Christ, director of golf at Essex County, finished third. Even Joey D, the county executive, was posting on Instagram. They mobilized. But here's the thing — they also have the golf course to back it up. The Banks/Raynor restoration gave Francis Byrne the architecture. The community gave it the crown. Tim already texted Mike to set up a date for Mike and Pro to come play. That visit is coming.

Congrats to Jay DiPaolo for winning the bracket challenge with 1,650 points and taking home a Dunning Polo and a DROP hat. And shout out to Shack — every graphic, every carousel, every results post hit all tournament long.

Scott Anderson, President of True Spec Golf, joined the show Thursday for a deep dive into what serious golfers still misunderstand about their equipment. This is True Spec's second DROP appearance — Michael Buell, the master fitter at Metedeconk National, was on back in February and the audience response prompted Mike to book the company's president.

Anderson's origin story is worth the listen alone. Montana kid. Ohio State golfer. Five years on mini-tours. Three cracks at second stage of Q-School. Then he saw True Spec at three locations, built a business plan on the plane home, and worked two jobs for 20 months to prove the model to his wife.

He started as a mobile unit franchisee with a TrackMan. Now he's president of a 40-location company. The episode is a masterclass in brand-agnostic fitting, why a "60 gram" shaft might actually weigh 68, why blueprinting reveals tolerances most golfers never consider, and why True Spec fitters will tell you to invest in lessons instead of a new driver if that's what you actually need.

Mike's own proof: he walked in a lifelong Titleist guy and walked out gaming Ping Blueprint S irons, a brand he'd never hit in his life.

Two NJ locations: Metedeconk National and Liberty National. If Masters week has you itching to play, this might be where your season starts.

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Mike and Austin Devereux qualified for the NJ Golf’s four-ball championship for a fourth consecutive year, finishing T6 at four under at TPC Jasna Polana. The round had everything — a shaky start (plus one through eight), a mid-round putting crisis, and a clutch switch to the claw grip that changed everything.

The four-ball championship heads to Little Mill Country Club on May 5. Mike's already thinking about a preview episode with member Michael Hyland. And here's the fun stat: when Mike went through every player's handicap in last year's match play field, he was dead last, a 2.5 index in a field where the next-highest was scratch. He'll probably hold that title again. Security blanket golf at its finest.

Meanwhile, Chris kicked off his competitive season at Galloway National's pro-pro with partner Brian Varsey. They finished 8th at five under, with Chris shot 72-73 and called the course conditions "perfect." He's got the NJ PGA Match Play Championship at North Jersey CC in May and a US Open Local qualifier at Fairview CC on his calendar. The game feels good.

Looking to show your Jersey golf pride this season. Check out our selection of shirts, hoodies, and hats in The DROP pro shop. Find quality gear like the DROP rope hat. Lightweight, comfortable, and perfect on or off the course.

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Mark Bryson is the director of golf at Monmouth University, head women's golf coach for the Hawks, and director of golf operations at Jumping Brook Country Club — and he's been doing the Jumping Brook part for 21 years. Thursday's interview is one of those episodes that captures what golfing in the Garden State actually looks like behind the scenes.

Bryson grew up in Massachusetts, played college golf at Methodist University's golf management program, worked at Metedeconk and Ford's Colony before landing at Jumping Brook. His coaching philosophy ties directly to last week's Fawcett episode — he uses DECADE with his players and preaches aggressive play to conservative targets. The Monmouth women carry a 3.7 team GPA across the last six semesters. They train winters at Tee2Green — the same facility that hosted The DROP's first live event — hitting TrackMan from 7 to 9 a.m. before the public arrives.

The recruiting challenge is real: keeping NJ's best female golfers home when Stanford and southern programs come calling. But Bryson's pitch — shore campus, elite course access at Jumping Brook and Deal, and a culture he's intentionally built — is landing.

When Mike asked for his favorite NJ course? Hamilton Farm. No hesitation.

Four episodes. A bracket champion. A four-ball qualifier. A course management masterclass. And a college coach who uses DECADE with his players two days after Fawcett was on the show explaining exactly why it works.

Here's the question: Mike switched to the claw mid-round at Jasna Polana and it changed everything. What's the weirdest mid-round adjustment you've ever made that actually worked?

Hit “reply”, we want to hear it.

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TRIVIA ANSWER: C) Missed fairway on a par four: The Tiger 5 are: bogeys on par fives, double bogeys, three putts, bogeys from inside 150 yards, and two-chips. Fawcett argues that if you track just these five things, you'll find where every "I should've shot lower" round went sideways.