They’ve been boyhood rivals and teamed up against their old man, now Pickin brothers Bryce and Jye are sharing the professional stage.
Two years Bryce’s junior, Jye (pictured, right) turned professional in May of last year after an amateur career highlighted by victory at the 2023 South Australian Amateur and countless Golf NSW representative teams.
The Newcastle native made an immediate impression on the professional game by taking out one of the most coveted events on the adidas PGA Pro-Am Series just months later, shooting a course record 62 in Round 2 to win the PSC Insurance Brokers Wagga Wagga Pro-Am.
Jye is the lone Pickin in the field for this week’s Webex Players Series Murray River tournament at Cobram Barooga Golf Club, the 24-year-old hoping to further advance his position on the Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia Order of Merit.
Bryce’s entry into professional golf has come via a different path.
The left-hander was also an outstanding amateur who played pennants alongside Jye for Avondale Golf Club in Sydney and won the boys division of the 2018 Faldo Series Australia Championship. Ladies European Tour player, Kelsey Bennett, won the girls division.
Yet a move into professional golf would come later. He flirted with a move into full-time work before taking up a position in the golf shop at Newcastle Golf Club.
For someone Jye says is a golf tragic, it was the perfect mix of employment and passion.
It led directly to Bryce starting the PGA of Australia’s Membership Pathway Program last year under Andrew Bowles at Newcastle Golf Club.
Bryce’s performances in the MPP tournaments in 2024, where he won three times, earned him an invite to make his Challenger PGA Tour of Australasia debut at the PNG Open last August where he and Jye played a Tour event together for the first time.
Bryce received another invite to play Webex Players Series Perth where he not only made the cut, but he and Jye were paired together for Round 3 at Royal Fremantle Golf Club.
“Oh, this was the dream. Absolutely,” said 26-year-old Bryce of playing on Tour.
“It feels a little bit surreal. It’s awesome.
“When I started the Membership Pathway Program, I started to play OK. Got a little bit of Tour status and then the opportunities came.”
Jye got the better of the brotherly battle that day in Perth to the tune of 70-75 yet the collective experience outweighed any thought of one-upmanship.
“It was pretty surreal. It was awesome,” said Bryce. “We played so many Saturdays together; it’s pretty different here.”
“I feel like it relaxed the nerves a whole lot for sure, seeing him walking onto the first tee,” added Jye, who went on to finish tied for 15th.
“Obviously a Saturday of a Tour event is pretty cool. And then to play with your brother is awesome again.
“To have that sibling rivalry is something that we’ve had since we were 10 years old. To have it at this level was priceless.
“To come to a tour event and for him to be sleeping in the room next to me and doing everything together, it’s awesome. It has that home feel to it as well, which is even better for players that travel so much.
“To have your brother alongside you is awesome.”
While the rivalry will never leave completely – they were joint winners with Robbie Minns of the Wyong PGA Open Match last June – the pair did team up as kids to get one up on the old man.
“We had a bet between us of our combined handicaps against our Dad’s handicap,” Jye recalled.
“The first time we beat him, he played in the morning at Charlestown and we both played in the afternoon.”
“We were having a swim in the pool at around six o’clock when the scores went into GolfLink and we pipped him,” said Bryce.
“He was like 8.1 or 8.2 and we were 4.1 and 3.9.”
Adds Jye: “Deep down I think he was happy to hand over the dozen balls.”