FRANKLIN — For months, Franklin’s Kenny Perry has directed essentially his full attention toward a single goal: the 2008 Ryder Cup at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville.

The international competition begins Friday, and even though Perry played a couple of practice rounds at Valhalla this week, he still reminds himself he’s actually a member of the 12-man United States squad.

“Until I put the red, white and blue on next week, it still hasn’t really sunk in,” Perry said Friday at Kenny Perry’s Country Creek, the public course he owns in Franklin. “It’s been different. Media’s all been wanting to talk to me. For 22 years, nobody cared where I went, what I played, what I did. Now everybody wants to talk to me. ... It’s been kind of hard for me to adjust to all the media attention.”

Perry, 48, was nearly obsessed with playing in the Ryder Cup in his home state, and his determination paid off. Not only did he claim a spot on the team, he turned in one of his finest seasons on the PGA Tour: three victories, seven top-10 finishes and more than $4,500,000 in earnings.

But simply teeing it up against the Europeans - who have won five of the last six matches in the biennial competition - won’t be enough for the Western Kentucky graduate.

“I don’t want to hear that ‘Ole’ song once,” Perry said of the soccer-style chant that’s become a punctuation mark of European victories.

Still, without golf superstar Tiger Woods, who will miss next week’s matches after undergoing knee surgery this summer, many prognosticators consider the Americans major underdogs - even U.S. captain Paul Azinger has said publicly that the Europeans are heavy favorites.

Perry, though, concedes nothing.

“I think Paul Azinger’s playing that card up a little bit,” he said. “I don’t consider us underdogs. I consider us just as good as they are. We may be underdogs in this team format, I don’t know.

“For whatever reason we’ve not been able to make the putts at the right time, the chemistry, whatever ya’ll want to say - they say we don’t get along. We get along great. We’re all good friends and we all appreciate what each other has accomplished on tour. We all have a lot of pride, and we all want to win just as bad as they do.”

Perry played in the 2004 Ryder Cup at Oakland Hills near Detroit, going 0-2 as the Europeans hammered the U.S. 181/2 to 91/2. He’s looking forward to competing in front of a partisan crowd at Valhalla, especially after the Detroit gallery was awfully quiet.

“I’m glad it’s in the South,” Perry said. “I think it’s going to be pro-U.S.A. Seems like Detroit, that’s kind of a melting pot. New York’s kind of a melting pot. To me, being where it’s going to be, it’s going to be pro-U.S.A. ... I think the Europeans are going to be stunned, to tell you the truth, by the amount of support we’re going to have.”

Helping matters, no doubt, is Azinger’s selection of Campbellsville and University of Kentucky graduate J.B. Holmes as a captain’s pick. While pairings for the event haven’t been announced, many observers - and apparently even Perry - expect the Kentuckians to play at least one match together.

“We’re going to be like rock-star status, we’re going to be like Tiger Woods status,” Perry said. “It’s going to be huge. We’ll have most of the crowd following us. ... It’ll be a very boisterous, very vocal crowd. It’ll be very exciting for me.”

Meanwhile, Perry expressed gratitude to his friends in Franklin, the small town where Perry has spent most of his life. He’s busy accumulating nearly 80 passes to the Ryder Cup - 20 from the PGA of America, 30 he bought himself, 10 he won in a raffle and several more he’s purchasing from an assortment of sellers - for friends and family. And he’s noticed a change in his quiet home routine once his status on the team was solidified.

“It’s funny - when I play well, my golf course does well,” he said. “They’re very close-knit together. They’re very excited. They want to come out here just to see if I’m out here. They come out just to shake my hand. They show a lot of support, a lot of love.”

He’s also eager to exorcize a demon at Valhalla. In 1996, Perry lost the PGA Championship to Mark Brooks in a playoff. He endured criticism for staying in the television tower after his round ended instead of preparing for possible extra holes.

Perry said he had no choice but to become stronger after that setback. Now he looks to leave a legacy.

“It’s just something I needed to do,” Perry said of earning his way back to the course. “Valhalla may be a place I never want to go back to if it doesn’t turn out very good next week. But if I play great, it’ll be something I’ll always remember.”