They come from all corners of the globe, but this day’s lunch is typical to the American college student.

As members of the ASU men’s golf team sink into the deep leather chairs in the team’s clubhouse, glued to the giant flat screen TV displaying a Roger Federer Australian Open tennis match, an aroma of sub sandwiches and Chipotle burritos fills the air.

Jokes are exchanged with a steady consistency as the players enjoy a break between classes and practice swings.

Yep, the boys are back in town.

Norwegian senior Knut Borsheim spent his winter break hitting balls inside a warehouse-type facility — it’s hard to make your way to the fairways when they are covered in snow — and cross-country skiing.

Scottish senior James Byrne headed back home to practice his game in the midst of one of the coldest European winters in the past 30 years, while junior Scott Pickney from Anthem, Ariz., squeezed a family trip to Disneyland in between a heavy practice regimen.

Now they and the rest of the Sun Devils are back in sunny Tempe and ready to embark on what they believe could be a special season.

“I think we are going to be even stronger this season because we have everybody back,” Byrne said.

ASU, which begins the spring season ranked No. 3 in the Golf World/Nike Coaches Poll, returns nearly every member of a lineup that made its way to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championships, where it fell to eventual champion Texas A&M.

Last season marked the first time the finals of the tournament were conducted in a match-play format, and ASU coach Randy Lein believes his team gained a lot of confidence with the way it played during the postseason.

The coach is also encouraged by the way the team performed during the fall season, a sign, he says, that the Sun Devils are poised to be even stronger this spring.

“We finished third, fifth and sixth in the national polls [after the fall season],” Lein said. “It’s good because in the spring we usually play a lot better."

An experienced crew

For Lein and the Sun Devils, the vote for most improved player on the squad is unanimous.

“Scott [Pickney], last fall, played the best golf he’s ever played,” said Lein, who is in his 18th season at the helm for the Sun Devils. “With that comes more confidence and more expectations.”

Pickney stormed through the fall season by finishing in the top 10 in every tournament he entered, including his top performance, a sixth-place finish at the PING/Golfweek Preview in Seattle.

The impetus for the junior’s improvement, he says, has been simple: practice, practice, practice.

“It’s just hard work,” Pickney said betweens bites of a stuffed-to-the-brim burritto. “I’ve been working on my swing, and when you work on things in your swing, things start to come together and your confidence builds. Everything builds just from hard work.”

The rise of Pickney’s game has the Valley native eyeing big things as the spring season prepares to tee off. A spot on the Palmer Cup roster — a event that pits college golf’s top American players against the top European ones — is on his radar.

But while Pickney has made strides in his game that give him the chance to be one of the nation’s top golfers this season, there is plenty of other firepower on the squad.

Byrne was possibly Europe’s hottest amateur last season. He won two tournaments, the Tennant Cup and the SolarSport East of Scotland amateur championship, by a combined 15 strokes. In the latter tournament, Byrne set a course record with a four-round total of 22-under par.

But while he burned up fairways in the United Kingdom during the summer, the results did not transfer to the fall season for Byrne, as he failed to qualify for any of the team’s three tournaments.

Lein, though, is confident the junior will find his stroke as the important part of the season begins, something the coach says will be vital to the team’s success.

“For me, [Byrne] is the key to get us going the best we can,” Lein said.

Struggling through a rough fall season, though, didn’t shake Byrne’s confidence, he said.

The Scotland native believes he will have his game ready to compete with the game’s top players.

“I don’t what it is; I came back over here [after the summer] and didn’t play quite as good,” Byrne said. “But this spring I think I’m ready to step up a bit. I just had some tough breaks during [fall] qualifying.”

ASU also returns Swedish junior Jesper Kennegard, who came on strong during the postseason last year following a slow start to the spring.

Kennegard captured the title at the NCAA West Regional in 2009 by posting a 12-under (204), and he finished in a ninth-place tie at the NCAA Championships.

Those performances came on the heels of a freshman season that saw Kennegard earn All-American honorable mention honors en route to posting the fourth-lowest scoring average for a freshman in the school’s history.

Lein also noted the improvement of Borsheim, who tied with Pickney for sixth place at the PING/Golfweek Preview during the fall.

Though a harsh winter in Norway made playing outdoor golf a near impossibility, Borsheim refined his short game indoors. He believes he is ready to be a major contributor for a squad with big expectations.

“I had a great fall semester, so if I can build on that, it’ll be very exciting,” Borsheim said. “We basically have the same team, so everybody has had another year to mature a little bit.”

Seniors Tristan Bierenbroodspot, whose fall season was highlighted by a sixth-place finish at the Olympia Fields Invitational, and Braxton Marquez, who posted a career-low 62 during an intrasquad round in the fall season, add experienced depth to the roster.

ASU opens its season on Wednesday in Kona, Hawai’i at the Hilo Big Island Invitational.

Results can be followed live on www.golfstat.com.

Reach the reporter at nkosmide@asu.edu