It’s a golf tournament, and Tiger Woods isn’t playing.

So how big could this month’s 37th Ryder Cup Matches at Louisville’s Valhalla Golf Club actually be?

In horse country parlance: Big enough to survive a scratch by Secretariat without losing any interest at the gate or at the window—in this case, a television screen.

The daily allotment of 40,000 or so tickets is sold out. According to several sources, the loss of Woods should have only a negligible effect on TV ratings.

“We’d love to have [Woods],” said Ryder Cup tournament director Tara Guenthner. “But this is the Ryder Cup. It’s not about individuals. It’s going to be a great event.”

That’s how big the Sept. 19-21 tournament is. Simply, it’s the biggest sporting event to ever come to Louisville—bigger than the six NCAA Final Fours it has hosted, or any Kentucky Derby.

While the Derby is huge, the Ryder Cup dwarfs it on the worldwide sports stage—especially in terms of TV exposure.

No slight intended to Thoroughbred horse racing’s annual rite of spring, but the Derby is an annual event held at the same venue. And though two or three hours of banter may be telecast live from Churchill Downs, the race itself lasts about two minutes.

Conversely, the Ryder Cup is held every other year, alternating between sites in America and Europe. It may never return to Louisville.

Plus, a full 26 hours of live TV coverage by NBC and USA cable network is scheduled from Valhalla during the three days of competition with a similar slate carried overseas by Sky Sports and the BBC. International media will center on the city for most of a week with the University of Louisville’s nationally televised football game against Kansas State serving as a great lead-in on Wednesday night.

The Ryder Cup should generate a nice payday, too, for area businesses. Detroit leaders said the 2004 Ryder Cup at suburban Oakland Hills made a $114 million impact on the local community.

“This is the premier event in golf,” said Mark Hill, the executive director of the Kentucky PGA Section and the Kentucky Golf Association. “The amount of television exposure alone is unbelievable. It’s going to be great for the PGA, the Ryder Cup and the state of Kentucky.”

Guenthner said Derby experience should help Louisville handle the myriad demands that go with staging one of the most popular international sporting events. Each May, the city entertains moguls and media from throughout the world for the first leg of the Triple Crown. So handling all the hoopla and sideshows that go with the Ryder Cup shouldn’t be overwhelming.

“This city knows how to roll out the red carpet,” said Guenthner, a former University of North Carolina golfer who moved to town with the PGA of America, married and started a family in Louisville.

About 8,000 Europeans are expected to descend on Valhalla. American fans should expect boisterous shouting and singing from European fans, many of whom enjoy bourbon and horse racing almost as much as golf.

With Woods out with a leg injury, the U.S. team, captained by Paul Azinger, should feature veterans Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk and Stewart Cink with several young players, including 23-year-old Anthony Kim. Others expected to play on the American team include Justin Leonard and colorful Boo Weekley. Kentuckian J.B. Holmes had an outside chance to make the team entering August’s PGA Championship.

The Euros and captain Nick Faldo, who has spent the year broadcasting PGA Tour events with Azinger, will counter with a team led by two-time British Open champion Padraig Harrington, Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood. With the likes of Ian Poulter, Justin Rose, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Henrik Stenson forming a strong second tier, the Euros may have superior depth.

Though the fiery rhetoric and antagonism surrounding the Ryder Cup (Remember the “War at the Shore” at Kiawah Island in 1991?) have tapered off to a more sportsmanlike level in the last decade, the matches always manage to ignite into a controversy or two.

But barring a surprise captain’s pick by Faldo, U.S. fans won’t have prissy Colin Montgomerie or notorious coin-jiggler Seve Ballesteros to hate.

Enter Kenny Perry, the 48-year-old local hero hoping to make good on a remarkable second chance for glory near his Old Kentucky Home. The Franklin native was likely to make the U.S. Ryder Cup team at press time, and should he prevail, he will provide American fans, especially Kentuckians, with someone to love.

Perry’s sister Lydia Petersen estimated that 60 family members and friends would make the trip to Valhalla from Franklin.

“He’s going to buy as many tickets as [the PGA] will let him,” said Petersen, who manages Kenny Perry’s Country Creek Golf Course outside Franklin. “We’ve been hit for ticket requests for several months. Kenny’s real worried about that.”

Born, bred—and yes, seemingly put out to pasture a decade ago—in the Bluegrass State, Perry has been the story of a Tiger-less summer on the PGA Tour.

Powered by three victories and a playoff loss, Perry, who has lived his entire life in Franklin (save his stint in Bowling Green at Western Kentucky University), has been the top American golfer this year.

Perry won Jack Nicklaus’ prestigious Memorial Invitational, the Buick Open and the John Deere Classic in a five-tournament span.

The only major raps against Perry have been over his schedule, not his performance. Perry played in only one of pro golf’s four major championships, last month’s PGA Championship.

He had no choice but to miss the Masters—he wasn’t invited. It was his decisions to pass up the U.S. Open and the British Open that were criticized throughout the golf world, though Perry said he was simply honoring commitments and staying to schedules he made prior to the season to maximize his chances of making the Ryder Cup team.

Perry did not attempt to qualify for the U.S. Open. He passed up an exemption at the British Open to play in the second-tier Milwaukee Championship.

Many fans—and fellow players—thought Perry owed it to the Ryder Cup and himself to try to play in the majors. Perry found the “controversy’’ funny.

“In 22 years, nobody has ever cared where I played golf. That’s the truth. ... It was kind of comical.”

In the end, Perry’s likeability and reputation as a straight shooter helped pull him through in the court of public opinion.

Delving into Perry’s background, fans learned that America’s top active golfer is a small-town family man who grew up playing on modest courses in western Kentucky and had a solid but winless collegiate career at WKU.

They found out that Perry needed $5,000 from a member of his church to take his final shot at qualifying for the PGA Tour. As part of the agreement, he has donated 5 percent of his earnings to Lipscomb University, an evangelical school near Nashville, throughout his career, paying back his debt 100 times over.

Wanting to give something back to his community, Perry built Country Creek near Interstate 65. He keeps the prices low and difficulty moderate for average players.

Though a move to a warmer climate such as Florida or California might have helped his career, Perry elected to stay in Franklin to raise his family. On weeks away from the Tour, he can often be seen hitting golf balls alongside his customers on the Country Creek practice range.

He’s won 12 PGA Tour events in his career, including three Memorial titles.

“Just think if he moved to Florida 20 years ago how many wins he’d have,” fellow Tour player Andrew Magee said.

In Perry, the PGA of America, which owns and controls the U.S. Ryder Cup operation, couldn’t have a better spokesman. He’s called the PGA his favorite major because it isn’t as stuffy as the others. And he’s called making the Ryder Cup team his primary focus of the season, even after winning three PGA Tour events.

“My only goal was to make the Ryder Cup team, and that’s really got me focused for whatever reason,” he said. “... It’s just been magical to have it fall together.”

Perry, winless in the only two matches he played at Oakland Hills in 2004, should be a much bigger factor in his second Ryder Cup go-round.

Long and accurate off the tee, he looms as a promising partner in the alternate shot rounds on Friday and Saturday. Teamed with an outstanding putter (Perry’s short game is his weakness) as a partner, Perry could be a terror in the format.

Azinger will get the top eight players in the U.S. Ryder Cup points standings then add four “captain’s picks.” Faldo will get eight players via a separate European points scheme plus four captain’s picks.

Though Harrington has captured back-to-back British Opens, the Euros lack the intimidators they had in their lineup with Faldo, Ballesteros, Bernhard Langer and Jose Maria Olazabal for much of the last two decades. But they always seem to find a powerful chemistry while uniting against a supposedly “stronger” U.S. team.

Faldo’s presence as captain should help. The Americans shouldn’t expect the newly unveiled charming side of Faldo we’ve seen on television. They should expect the meticulous, intense and grinding competitor who won the 1990 British Open with 18 pars and came from six strokes down to bury Greg Norman at the 1996 Masters.

Faldo, who has played in a record 11 Ryder Cups, brings a strong track record as a player (23-19-4) and the respect that comes with winning six major titles to the Euro side, which has won five of the last six Ryder Cups, including the last three.

The teams will find Valhalla much different than it played during PGAs in 1996 and 2000. Original designer Jack Nicklaus lengthened and/or renovated most of the holes. Several greens have been tweaked—though at least two were made less severe. Nicklaus also added new, improved spectator viewing areas.

The 18th hole, an uphill, 545-yard par-5, seems perfect for Ryder Cup drama. Reachable in two shots for big hitters, it will force tough decisions and cause pressure-packed swings for players whose matches reach the final hole.

It was at 18 where Perry blew the 1996 PGA. Leading by two strokes on the tee in the final round, he bogeyed the hole and dropped into a tie when Mark Brooks birdied the hole minutes later. In the playoff, Perry imploded on 18, allowing Brooks to grab the Wannamaker Trophy with another birdie.

Perry’s performance on the PGA Tour plummeted the next three years.

“He was really disappointed. I think he felt he let people down,” said Petersen.

“I feel like I really need to go back there,” Perry said.

Tiger Woods won the 2000 PGA, beating Bob May in a playoff after finishing regulation play with a birdie at 18.

After the 2000 tournament, the PGA purchased complete ownership of Valhalla, giving it a rent-free major championship venue.

Valhalla has weathered years of criticism from traditionalists, who deem the modern course unworthy—in design and history—of holding a major championship.

Built less than three decades ago, Valhalla doesn’t have the pedigree carried by early 20th century U.S. Ryder Cup venues such as The Country Club, Pinehurst No. 2 and Oak Hill.

“It’s become a great golf course,” said former PGA President Gary Schaal, who was one of the organization’s leaders when it purchased its initial stake in Valhalla more than a decade ago. “I give it maybe a ‘B’ for golf course heritage and tradition.

“We wouldn’t want to have the Ryder Cup at a [newer] course like Valhalla every time it’s in America, but I think there’s a place to do it every three or four times. Louisville has proven to be a very enthusiastic market for golf.”

Sellout crowds at Valhalla’s two PGA Championships and its Senior PGA Championship in 2004 did prove that Louisville was starving for a major golf championship.

Thanks to those successes, Louisville again will play host to the world’s premier golf event.

Coming down the stretch, event organizers are excited. Tiger will be missed. Local favorite Perry and golf’s most heated team competition will be embraced.

“This is a community event that the people will want to put their arms around,” Guenthner said. “This is an opportunity to showcase our city to the people of the world.”

For Louisville, and for Kentucky, the stakes don’t any bigger than that. But success looks like a sure bet.

— John Brasier