FRANKLIN Even though hes one of the top golfers on the PGA Tour this year, Kenny Perry is still just a regular guy at heart. Thats exactly what he had in mind when he designed Kenny Perrys Country Creek golf course. Its not a championship caliber golf course, but yet its in great shape and its fun to play, Perry said. All the trouble is left, because most people slice. If you slice, you can play pretty much all day here. Country Creek, an 18-hole public course just off Interstate 65 in Franklin, has been open since 1995.Perry decided to build it because he thought there was a need for a public course in his hometown. This town needed it. I was raised here on the country club and all my buddies, if they werent members of the club, we couldnt play together, Perry said. If we wanted to play golf, we had to go to Nashville, Bowling Green or Russellville. I thought that was not right. Since it opened, the number of golfers visiting Country Creek has steadily increased, according to manager John Jackson. Business has improved every year. We have a lot of people that see us from the interstate and that really helps, he said. They may pass on their way to Alabama to play the Robert Trent Jones Trail and then the next time through here they will stop. Most of the regulars come from Franklin, but Jackson said he sees a lot of golfers from Bowling Green and Tennessee as well. Country Creek saw a spike in attendance last month when Perry won back-to-back tournaments. Always when Im playing good, the course does well. Weve seen that over all the years Ive been playing, Perry said. Its been pretty interesting, the better I play, the better it is out here. Theres always been a direct correlation. The course has also improved through the years. The trees are slowly becoming more of a factor and the zoysia grass fairways are much better now than several years ago. The first couple years they had trouble with the fairways because zoysia takes up to five years to mature, Jackson said. Now it has come along and our fairways are really nice. Its all just part of the normal growing pains. While there arent many hazards on the course, there are just enough to make things interesting. Like the par-5 No. 7, which doglegs to the left. The more adventurous golfers can take a chance at shooting over a red barn that was left over from the days when the course was still a farm. There are also plans to add some more sand traps. Were going to put in some new bunkers. Im not sure when they will get around to it, but I know its a pretty high priority, Jackson said. The 17th and 18th are the toughest holes according to Jackson. Those are very tough finishing holes, he said. Its really just the distance. Theyre long and it seems like youre going uphill all the way and sometimes against the wind. The two par-4s are 418 and 438 yards, respectively, from the back tees. The routing of the golf course was fun, Perry said. We did pretty much all the work in house. It was quite an undertaking, but it turned out great. While some professional golfers spend a lot of time designing new courses in their later years, Country Creek will likely be the first and only for Perry. After this, I dont have desire to do that anymore, he said. It really made me appreciate all the architects and how good they actually are.