LOUISVILLE, Ky. --- I've got a funny feeling about this.

After weeks (if not months) of being convinced that this American team has absolutely no chance of toppling the European empire that has reigned on the Ryder Cup, a seismic shift in thinking has occurred on the grounds of Valhalla. A Ben Crenshaw-like optimism has taken root into the pessimistic patriotism like bluegrass fescue.

The underdog United States will win this week. Well ... the underdog Yanks CAN win this week.

No matter what this matchup looks like on paper, Paul Azinger's Americans are plenty capable of turning this battleship around on home turf.

Here's how they'll do it in five easier-said-than-done steps.

Step 1: Beat Sergio. There has been a lot of talk about whether or not the U.S. team is better off or dead in the water without Tiger Woods. I'm inclined to take the heretical view and say the former. Woods was more of an inspirational figure for the Europeans than the Americans. Beating him (which they did fairly regularly) was a motivational jolt to the whole side.

Now the Americans have that kind of target on the opposite team in Sergio Garcia. He is the new continental lion who lives for this stage more than any other. He hates the Yanks; he slays the Yanks. He's incredibly 8-0-0 in alternate shot matches, 14-4-2 overall and has the highest point percentage (75.0) of any European.

It's time to turn that around and turn those upsets into American energy while deflating a Euro side which practically takes the young Spaniard's points for granted. Home boy Kenny Perry and Jim Furyk get the first crack in the morning anchor match.

"When you play a guy who's never lost you have everything to gain and nothing to lose," said Azinger. "I couldn't have drawn that up any better."

Step 2: Light a fire. The Americans have never led after any single session since winning the cup in 1999 at Brookline. They've essentially lost the past two on the first day by digging early holes that led to romps.

"Momentum is everything in this," said American Stewart Cink.

Getting off to a fast start and getting the home crowd worked into a lather is critical. Take out one of the bookend marquee pairings, earn a point-and-a-half in the middle matches and get a quick lead and the sparks will fly as the confidence rises. And getting the Kentucky exacta ticket of Perry and J.B. Holmes to rise to the occasion in their afternoon matches could lift the galleries into a fervor usually reserved for Southeastern Conference football or a Louisville-Kentucky hoops game.

Step 3: Engage Phil. Since losing infamously to Philip Price in the penultimate singles match at The Belfry in 2002 and costing the U.S. the cup, Phil Mickelson has been a disengaged liability to the team. He's 1-7-1 in the past two events.

That absolutely has to change and, to that end, he's probably going to see a lot of fiery young wingman Anthony Kim this weekend. The rookie has the makings of a star, and he's willing to subordinate himself to play Mickelson's ball in alternate shot and do whatever it takes to make them the American A-team. This is the matchup Mickelson requested, now he has to make it worthwhile.

"After two big thrashings, you make the necessary adjustments to win the rematch," Azinger said of his opening power pairing against a similar Euro tandem of Padraig Harrington and Robert Karlsson.

Step 4: Find a hero. There is sense that this U.S. team is generally bland and lacks the kind of passionate team leader such as a young Azinger, the late Payne Stewart or the animated Chris DiMarco. Somewhere from the depths of the khaki-clad roster needs to rise an unlikely hero.

Maybe it will be a veteran rookie such as Ben Curtis or Steve Stricker. Maybe it will be a youngster such as Hunter Mahan. Maybe it will be a character like Boo Weekley.

It was Weekley who said it best in his elegantly unsophisticated way this week.

"You don't know what you've got until you get out there and play with it," he said. "It's like getting a new pack of hounds when we were growing up and going deer hunting. You don't know what kind of dogs you've got until you run them. So let's run these dogs and we'll see."

Step 5: Embrace Brookline. For goodness sakes, can we please stop apologizing for the post-putt euphoria in 1999 (as Justin Leonard was forced to do in the first moments of his return to this stage after nine years of exile)?

The Euro tabloid press will never accept it anyway, and they've used it as a smokescreen to forget how much the U.S. crushed them on perhaps the greatest Sunday in Ryder Cup history. Those blokes can't see the forest for the trees.

"The American players running onto the 17th green at Brookline in 1999 was pure exuberance," former European great and captain Tony Jacklin famously said. "For the Europeans to call it anything else is sour grapes."

So let's serve their sanctimonious whines another dose. Get excited. Get loud. Get a grip of the last great glorious moment in U.S. Ryder Cup history and recreate it with a little more Southern gentility.

Let the dogs out and may the best team win. And contrary to popular beliefs, that best team just might be wearing red, white and blue polos this weekend.