Lye attended San Jose State University, where he was a three-time All-American on the golf team.
Lye did not even expect to stay in Australia after he failed to qualify for that year's Australian Open.
Lye then shot 68-67 to defeat a field that included, in addition to Owen and Nagle, 1975 U.S. Open champion Lou Graham, 1975 Open Championship winner Tom Watson, and recent Australian Tour champion Greg Norman.
[2] Three years later, in 1983, he recorded his only victory on the PGA Tour, at the Bank of Boston Classic.
[6] In 1995, at the age of 43, Lye tore a ligament in his right hand at the FedEx St. Jude Classic and retired from the tour.
After reaching the age of 50 in November 2002, Lye joined the Champions Tour as a part-time player.
[2] To compete in select Champions Tour events, Lye transitioned to being an on-course reporter.
In August 2015, Lye was hired as one of the cohosts of "The Scorecard," a pregame show for Saturday and Sunday rounds of every broadcast PGA Tour event, on Sirius XM.
[10] Late in his career he formed Jake Trout and the Flounders, a cover band with fellow professional golfers Payne Stewart and Peter Jacobsen.