Squinting from the sun, Niklas Lemke lines up a long putt through the afternoon shadows on the practice green at the ASU Karsten Golf Course.
Since his arrival from Sweden in 2003, Lemke has consistently produced the kind of numbers for the ASU men's golf team that would normally create a good deal of fanfare.
But when doing so during the rein of three-time All-American and 2003 NCAA national champion Alejandro Canizares, even those kinds of contributions can go unnoticed.
After quietly playing behind the scenes, the Sun Devil junior said that he's ready to step out into the spotlight.
"I'm very excited about this year," Lemke said. "I've changed my perspective since my freshman year, and I'm looking at these next two years as a time to get better and make a bigger impact."
And he has. In just his third appearance of the season, Lemke recorded his first top-five finish as a Sun Devil when he tied for third at the Big Ten/Pac-10 Challenge held outside of Chicago.
"I feel like a brand new player, and that was nice proof that I'm working on the right things," Lemke said. "During my first two years, it was hard for me to be away from my dad, who was my swing coach."
Despite maintaining a record-breaking low stroke average over his freshman year - seventh all time at 72.32 strokes over 10 events - Lemke said that he "was disappointed with the first two years and lost a lot of confidence."
Having been on the Swedish national team since 1998 and having represented his country at age 10, expectations were high for the four-time Foreningsbanken Cup winner. ASU coach Randy Lein said that adjusting to play here could be difficult for an international player.
"I think it reached a point early on where he was playing defensively and trying to not hurt the team," Lein said. "He's so talented that you just want him to just go out and let it happen. He was just too careful."
Shaking off the first two seasons, Lemke went into summer break looking to change his outlook. Working closely with his father, Bertil Lemke, a professional golfer in Sweden, Niklas focused on gaining control of his mental game.
"I've been working on my mental approach to every shot," he said. "I've worked on accepting that doing my best is all that I can do. During my first two years, I really didn't do that."
Lemke added that he wanted to concentrate on the long term as opposed to feeling pressured to win every tournament. The philosophy seems to be working for him so far, as his stroke average is as low as it's ever been at ASU at 72.33.
"He's looking to improve long term so that when he does graduate he's ready to play professionally," Lein said. "For me that's great because if he's where he wants to be when he leaves here, then he's going to be dang good by then."
Teammate and fellow Swede Fredrik Andersson began his ASU career simultaneously with Lemke. Andersson said that having a countryman on the same team has been helpful for both golfers.
"It was good to have a teammate like him, especially in the first year," Andersson said. "It was the first time that I was away from my family and home, so it was good to have someone from Sweden to talk to."
After earning All-American accolades last season, Lemke said that he's ready to make the most of his last two years at ASU.
"I want to win a tournament pretty bad, but it is not the most important thing," he said. "I just have to keep working and practice being patient."
The ASU men's golf team enters the final round of the Isleworth Intercollegiate Invitational being held outside Orlando, Fla., today.
Play was suspended all-day Monday to allow Hurricane Wilma to pass overhead.
Lemke enters the round in a tie for 40th place at 5-over-par 149.
Reach the reporter at michael.fowler@asu.edu.
