Amazon’s A Course Called Ireland was not supposed to be a Bill Murray TV show, but that’s pretty much what we got — not that Tom Coyne is complaining. (Murray is, a little.)
A Course Called Ireland, an adaptation of Coyne’s 2009 book of the same name, premieres Sunday on Paramount+. The six-episode, 30-minutes-per-episode series is as breezy as the Irish coast’s weather. Its original intention was to retrace the journey chronicled in Coyne’s bestseller — the golf writer once walked the island playing every golf course it had to offer — but this version of A Course Called Ireland became, as Murray grumpily laments in at least one episode to a director, “The Bill Murray Fucking Show.”
Murray has time for pretty much everyone who wants a photo — it is the production crew taking the professional videos he’d like to avert the lenses of.
“I’m heavy in the show. For an executive producer, that’s about as heavy as you can get,” Murray told The Hollywood Reporter. “I don’t want to complain about that. I did my complaining then. It’s too late to complain.”
I’m on a Zoom call with Murray, who is wandering the streets of Boston solo after sunset, and Coyne, who is sitting in a house in the Carribean. In a bucket hat and without a care in the world, Murray speaks kindly but candidly about making his buddy Coyne’s TV dream come true.
“I thought I was going to be an executive producer who would just show up and wait for the fresh croissants and stuff, not do much of anything,” Murray, who has only seen the first two episodes, explained. “If it comes back to being about Tom’s book, I’m going to be happy — I was not happy that they were sort of making it a little bit too much about me.”
Coyne is cool with whatever. He’s probably just relieved to have finally optioned this thing after 17 years of trying. I asked if he thinks the show gets made without the carrot of marketing it as a Bill Murray golf series.
“I’m realistic. I knew that when the producer bought it, that a Tom Coyne-headlined show was not going to be produced by Skydance Sports on Paramount+ and the BBC and all those things, right? I know that,” Coyne told THR. “So, yeah, Bill was a huge help to come along as a guest — as we envisioned it — a guest on my travels around Ireland.”
“The show, as it comes together, naturally it becomes more Bill-focused. But I’m not naive about why that’s the case. Bill’s amazing, and he’s amazing in the show,” he continued. “Whether it was Bill Murray or Charles Barkley or Shaquille O’Neal — it’s someone. It was never going to be ‘The Tom Coyne Show.'”
(For what it’s worth: Skydance, I’d still watch.)
It sounds like A Course Called Ireland could have starred Barkley or O’Neal — or Steph Curry, or Tom Holland or anyone, really.
“Every celebrity who golfs was brought up at some point,” Coyne said.
But Murray made the most sense. He and Coyne share Irish roots and they already play a lot of golf together — they even own a course together. Murray, Coyne and Jason Kelce of all people (Murray’s from Philly) own the historic, 9-hole Sullivan County Golf Club in the Catskills. (Kelce is among the guests in A Course Called Ireland, along with Chris O’Dowd and a few Murray brothers.)
“Bill’s the kind of friend…he looks out for people and knows that he can lend something to their lives of significance,” Coyne said.
That’s just what Murray has done here. There (Ireland), Murray saved his best moments for the locals. There was a time where Bill Murray Moments were up there with Chuck Norris Facts in terms of internet lore. Now, they’ve become almost the expectation among an adoring public whom, even more than a selfie, want a story. I asked Murray if the mainstreaming of his almost-mythical encounters has turned something special into a burden.
“If you’re living correctly, it’s not a burden. But if you’re stuck in something else, then yeah, it’s hard,” Murray said. “It’s just like another aspect of life. Something gets going, and you get attached to something — or something attaches to you — and you’re not free…to operate the way you wish to operate.”
Cell phone cameras have also stolen some of the magic. Juggling these impromptu meet cutes can be “a game of catch sometimes,” Murray said.
“Sometimes someone throws one too hard at you from too close, and someone throws one that you just can’t get to,” he explained the metaphor. “And sometimes you throw one and it hits them in the nose.”
And sometimes you get a well-earned mini-break from always being “on.” Those times are vital for rejuvenation — especially when you’re 75 years old.
Other times you fly commercial and it is what it is.
“Here it is again. It’s back,” Murray recalled thinking as he walked to his gate. “I’d had like four days without it. I felt like kind of refreshed.”
“I had a lot of energy, so I found myself having these sort of episodes with people in the airports. They’re fun,” Murray said. “It’s not always difficult. It’s just a much higher number of events than ordinary life. The percentages are the same — it’s just that the numbers are different.”
Maybe it’s just that Bill Murray is different.
A Course Called Ireland, produced by Skydance Sports and Stellify Media, premieres Sunday on Paramount+. In the U.K., the series will air on BBC Two, BBC One Northern Ireland and BBC iPlayer.