A Course Called Ireland (2026) s01e06 Episode Script

1
CHEERING
You see that guy there?
That's me, Tom, on the sidelines of
an American football game in Dublin,
surrounded by 80,000
screaming fans
Fourth down!
..about to give an interview
on international television.
You haven't been on Irish TV today.
- Hi.
- How are you doing?
You all right?
- I'm Bill.
- This is Tom Coyne.
- Hey, Tom Coyne.
- I'm Bill.
If you're wondering
what I'm doing there
Yeah, so was I.
Once upon a time, I met Bill Murray.
Bill got excited.
We bonded over two things -
our love of golf
Oh, yeah. Really good.
..and our Irish heritage.
What a country, huh? It's crazy.
Years ago, I came to Ireland
to write a book
about the country
my ancestors came from.
Bill read it and lent some
kind words for the cover
OK, there it is. Yeah.
..and it turned into a bestseller.
Yeah. Oh Let me
Then I just kept finding
reasons to come back.
Oh, beautiful hit.
Most people get a Bill Murray story.
I got three weeks.
Hey, easy on that grip,
will you, you big weaver?
Enough time
for the stories to wear off
and the person to show up.
Where's Bill?
I think he's in the woods somewhere.
Turns out I still had a lot
to learn about my friend.
Isn't that lovely?
It's been a special trip,
just the two of us.
Well, then NFL superstar
Jason Kelce showed up.
How'd it look?
And, I suppose, Bill's brothers,
Joel and Johnny.
Then obviously your camera guy
..caddie
..a photographer and a director,
a producer,
a sound recordist
with a long pole
I'm worried, Tom.
All right, Bill's going to drive.
We were down to the last few days
of our trip
..and I'll let you in
on a secret about Bill.
There's a reason that,
up to this point,
I'd been doing all the driving.
- You know what you're doing up here?
- I hope so.
Oh, bejesus.
- Oh, whoa, whoa.
- What?
No. Well, you know,
the pole wasgetting close to me.
Oh, you're getting close
to the pole?
Yeah, it felt It felt a little
Oh.
It felt a little intimate.
So that's about as close to
the poles as you want to get?
That's as close to the poles
as I think I want to get.
So if we can make that, like, the
Well, you know, I felt like
I was close to the poles
- when you started too
- I know.
- ..and I didn't
- Yeah.
- Except for one.
I guess they have one
of my yelps on screen.
- Whoa!
- What did I hit?
You know me, I Oh, fuck!
- Oh, fuck!
- I'm sorry.
I went back instead of forward.
My bad.
- Fuck!
- Fu-u-u-uck!
There you go.
See? You executed that well.
- I did? Good.
- I think.
I think so.
Well, he felt OK with it.
Love the right. Use the road.
The road's your friend.
The rocks are not.
- You mean off-road
is not my friend?
- No.
ENGINE REVS
We pointed the car east
toward County Down,
crossing the border
into Northern Ireland,
and headed for one of
my favourite golf courses anywhere.
You pull into the parking lot
at Ardglass,
and suddenly you're staring
at a 15th-century building
that's the world's oldest clubhouse
still in use.
Clifftops, Irish Sea.
Good luck concentrating
on your golf here.
Lovely day for it!
I mean, this is what
we came here for.
You want the full experience, right?
Exactly.
If you're an American,
you know Jason's won a Super Bowl
with my beloved Philadelphia Eagles,
and alongside his brother, Travis,
hosts one of the biggest podcasts
in the world.
Please welcome Bill Murray!
If you're not an American, well,
this is where the producers want me
to mention that his sister-in-law
is Taylor Swift.
Me, Bill and Jason have played
a fair amount of golf back home,
and the three of us even own
a little golf course together
in New York.
What's up? Give it
Bring it in, bring it in.
We made it across the pond.
We've made No excuses today.
How are you, man?
There'll be no excuses.
I heard you're a mudder. I heard
this is what you're built for.
- I like it like this.
- Yes.
- Yeah.
Do I have time to grab a Guinness?
Yeah, of course. You've always
got time for a Guinness.
- OK, I will go grab one.
- It's mandatory. It's mandatory.
Mandatory. Mandatory.
Pre-round Guinness.
- Excuse me, ma'am. Pardon me.
- Yes?
This man has a drinking problem.
I do, yes.
Beat us to it.
- Goddamn
- She's clever.
She wants a Guinness.
What has been the highlight so far?
All the courses have been great.
- Yeah.
- We played Old Head
Oh, shit!
..Cork
- Oh!
- Oh, shit!
..Enniscrone
HE LAUGHS
Castlegregory.
Oi-ii, ya!
Oh, Cruit.
We went to Cruit Island too.
- Oh, no!
- Oh!
That feels good. Yeah.
Do we have caddies?
- Yes, sir.
- Maybe.
How's your shoulders?
- I'm good.
- Are you sure?
I can cope with this. I'm good.
Yeah, I've had a go
- Oh!
- You mean THAT good?
You mean your shoulder's THAT good?
- Yeah.
- You're a mess.
I am a mess. You're right.
- What's up?
- How are you?
- Good to see you.
- Good to see you.
How's the trip been?
- Great.
- Yeah.
- Until you got here.
- I know. I ruin everything.
- Thanks for bringing the weather!
Eventually, our little golf trip
had to become a TV show again,
which meant today was picture day.
Our photographer, Chris,
had worked with Bill years earlier.
Oh, is this gorgeous.
Like just about everyone who'd met
Bill, Chris had a story to tell.
If I hadn't met Bill,
I wouldn't have met my wife.
How strange is that,
that I'm here now?
It was 20 years ago.
I was in a bar.
We were having after-work pints
with Bill and the rest of the crew.
Bill was doing a dance-off with
the first AD, who I think actually
was the water boy in Lawrence of
Arabia, if I remember right.
Dance-off was going well.
He was wearing plus fours.
- Oh, it's a little breezy over here.
- Just
We were all getting bladdered.
I went downstairs and
..fell in love, I suppose.
She wanted nothing to do with me.
I told her I was working with Bill.
That no doubt helped.
20 years later, two kids later, here
we are, back with dear old Bill.
By now, I'd watched Bill
happily pose for photos
with half of Ireland
..so you'd figure this shoot
would be a breeze.
But recent history
suggested otherwise.
I've been hired
to shoot Bill Murray.
I'm super, super nervous
because it's very difficult
shooting somebody like this.
You don't want the photographs
to look contrived.
You want to show who he really is.
"Now you've got to go
get your picture taken."
We're trying to get out the door,
and then it's like, "Now
you've got to do a photo shoot."
That's not the way pros do it.
Hey, guys, kill it.
We'll do it tomorrow.
So this was our last shot.
Roger, you're an edger.
Five, three, two.
- Five, three, two.
- We don't
understand a word you're saying,
so just shoot.
We don't have any idea
what you're saying or why.
Goddamn. How did he figure out
how to do this?
Wonderful. That's it, guys.
- That's it?
- No, no
- All that for that?
- Just those three.
No, no, just threes now.
Threes.
I realised a funny thing
about my friend -
he loved giving people a moment,
he just couldn't stand
manufacturing them.
Good. See, I thought
you needed a second one.
Took a bit of time to warm up to me,
but we got there in the end,
and he was good.
Looks as good as ever.
Doesn't seem to have aged that much.
Still a bit crazy, I think.
He's a bit sideways.
Do you know what I mean?
He's rock and roll, isn't he?
I suppose everybody wants to kind of
be part of the Bill Murray story,
don't they?
That kind of craziness that goes.
So, yeah, today's been
a really nice day.
For the rest of us,
the day was just beginning.
I've got sunblock in here
if you need it.
We decided to play foursomes,
and the rules are super simple.
All right,
so we're playing foursomes,
because you're playing
alternate shots.
So, at home, we call it
alternate shot.
Here, you might call it foursomes,
because you're alternating
who's hitting the ball,
but it's not really alternate shot,
because you pick who's going to be
teeing off on the odd holes and
the even holes before you go out.
So we're playing three groups
of two people
that are making up a foursome,
which is actually a sixsome
playing foursomes.
Anyway, so far on our journey,
we'd been lucky with the weather.
But now, right at the end,
it seemed our luck had run out.
BILL LAUGHS
Would you look at that?
That looks insane. That looks crazy.
Yeah, it does!
Oh, this is going to be fun.
Who have we got?
OK, you're Scotch foursomes
with Johnny.
I'll play with Joel.
You play with Jason.
- OK.
- All good?
- Powerful.
- Get up!
- All right.
Oh, yeah, baby, we're on!
Couldn't ask for
a better day, gents.
- OK, knock in the hole.
I'll go watch.
- All right.
Oh, no.
Well, Bill, you've got
to come back down.
Yeah.
I don't mind coming back down.
Coming back up wasn't fun.
We're kind of playing golf
and also kind of in the middle
of a monsoon right now.
Bill's down there hitting
our third stroke as a team.
That's all I got. Sorry.
To be honest,
this is what I came over for.
This is what I want to be playing.
I played in the sun on Thursday
and it felt wrong.
What makes it so enjoyable
in the rain?
Oh, I like it.
You know, I have strong memories
of playing in the rain
and having a great time.
- Are we ready?
- Yeah, let's do it.
Let's roll.
Oh, my God, look at the pages.
Here we go.
- Too high.
- I think it's over.
OK, try and lift the book up so
I can see your face a bit more, Tom.
- OK.
- That's it. And action.
Oh, I can't even hardly read.
"There seemed plenty of superlatives
to offer about Ardglass,
"but our opinion
was best summarised"
I don't know that I've ever
stood in a puddle and putted before.
- A little bit.
- Hey!
Yeah! Water hazard.
I can feel the water
coming out of my ears.
I've played some good courses.
Nothing like this.
What would you rather
be doing, Johnny?
Anything.
Anything, really.
I'll admit it - I was happy to
see the rain coming in sideways,
because just after the seventh hole
at Ardglass is a stone shelter
that feels like it was
built for days like this.
Help! Help!
"Mind your head."
Hi. How are you?
Ahh
Oh! Oh!
Dreams do come true.
Nice.
Now this is pretty freaking cool.
Oh
Holy cow.
- What's your name?
- Liam.
- Liam.
- Nice to meet ya.
- Good to meet you, Liam.
What was this initially?
Do you know?
People lived here
years and years ago.
- It's a house?
- A full house.
A family of five lived here.
It's Ireland.
LAUGHTER
Home-made sausage rolls!
Home-made sausage rolls!
I'm a mustard man.
I'm a mustard man.
"We journeyed on, and as we
made the turn to replay
"Mulranny's nine holes,
the weather softened -
"spirit-crushing shitstorm
downgraded to miserable dribble -
"and the course showed itself
to be enjoyable enough
"to stand up to the conditions.
"And as I sipped a Guinness
in Nevin's Pub, I dried my feet
"by the peat fire and, once again,
"felt the potential
of this adventure,
"keenly aware that there was
something far greater than gold
"at the end of the rainbow,
"and that was the Guinness
at the end of the rain."
Well done, Tom.
Cheers, all. To your health.
- Cheers.
- Slainte.
- Slainte.
May you still be healthy tomorrow
after being wet all day.
LAUGHTER
Cheers.
By the time we'd made it out of the
pub, the rain had finally stopped.
And we still had
some golf in us yet.
- Get up there. Go!
- Softly.
- Go!
- Oh
I get a lot from golf.
I've been given a lot by golf.
If I think about my friendships,
the places I love
to be in the world,
I owe all of that to golf.
- Oh, Joel.
- Come on, come on in.
15 years ago, I came here
and decided I loved it.
And now, everyone's here,
and you're like,
"I hope you like it," you know?
And Bill, it was cool that we've
been able to go to some places
that he hasn't been before.
I sometimes think about that kid who
walked these roads with golf clubs
strapped to his backpack.
He couldn't have imagined where
that walk would eventually lead,
least of all that it would
give him a friend like Bill.
Oh, that looks great out there.
God.
Why do you think Bill is here?
Well, the way I approached
asking him was, it's golf,
it's Ireland, and also
it would mean a lot to me.
And I think Bill does believe
in taking care of his friends
and doing right.
That's, er
What can you say?
What can you say about a guy
like that?
LAUGHTER
I was looking
I was looking at that sky
and I went,
"How can you look at that sky
and even think about the putt?
"How can you even
think about the putt?"
What a great day. What a great day.
Ah, that's cool.
Had a great day at Ardglass
with Jason.
Very cool of him to come up
and play some golf with us.
And very kind of him, NFL legend,
future Hall of Famer that he is,
to invite us to the NFL game
in Dublin tomorrow,
so that's awesome.
I was hoping that we would get
a chance to check that out.
I think it's a pretty cool
You know, we've been soaking up
all this Irish culture.
I think it's a fun way to bring
some of our culture here.
So we made one last detour,
crossing back into the Republic
for the first-ever regular-season
NFL game in Ireland
CHEERING
..where the Pittsburgh Steelers
were taking on the Minnesota Vikings
at Dublin's Croke Park.
For weeks, I'd been bringing Bill
into my world.
Today, he returned the favour
and brought me into his.
Hey, Bill, can I get a picture?
She's a Bears fan.
Come on here.
- And this is Dick Butkus
and Walter Payton.
- Exactly.
- Come on, I know who that is.
- It's from '85.
You want to tell me
what's happening here, Tom?
Well, we're going to
a football game eventually,
but we wanted to go
for a little walk
to take in some of the atmosphere.
So, you can see Bill has
become the atmosphere.
Hey, man.
- Hi.
- Hi.
Schwing die Hufe, baby.
- How are you doing?
- Pleasure to
meet you.
- Good beard, brother.
- Nice to meet you.
- How are you doing,
man?
- Looking good.
How are you guys doing?
I had a pretty good idea of
how the day was going to go -
I'd lose Bill every 30 seconds,
then find him taking another photo.
You been to a football game before?
- Yeah, of course.
- Well, here it is again.
We're down here on the sidelines.
It's crazy. I've never been
on the sidelines for a game,
so this is so, so cool.
Bill evidently knows everybody here.
Or, rather, they know him.
What I didn't expect was that
Bill decided this was my day too.
Yeah, sure.
Trying to give these away.
There's no artificial flavours.
Three, two
You know, they say,
"Never take candy from a stranger",
but I just met Bill Murray
in Ireland,
and he's offering me candy,
so here we are.
Bill Murray and Jason Kelce,
I just don't know who to ask first.
Why are you guys here?
Who would like to answer it?
- Well, I'll defer to Bill.
- Bill, why are you here?
We're over here clowning around
with a friend of ours,
Tom Coyne, who wrote a book
about golf in Ireland.
Bill wanted me to do
the interview with him.
Oh, he wants me.
Just today
- They didn't want that.
- Are you having a good time?
- I heard you were in Kerry
the other day as well.
- Tom.
But Bill did.
CHATTER AND LAUGHTER
But they didn't.
Because the purple team
plays the Bears.
- Come here.
- But Bill did.
Come here. Here, just a second.
Come on in here.
I know you've got a lot
This is my friend Tom Coyne.
He wrote a book called
A Course Called Ireland.
Got pulled into some interviews.
Bill pulled me in like
they might know who the hell I was,
which was very, very generous
of him.
Yeah, everyone here is wondering,
"Who the hell's that redheaded guy
walking around with Bill Murray?"
Good enough.
That's Bill, though.
If he thinks
you belong in the interview,
you're doing the interview.
I didn't get the sense he was
trying to put me in the spotlight.
It just never occurred to him
that I shouldn't be there.
Ladies and gentlemen,
to sing the anthem of Ireland,
please welcome
Irish singer-songwriter Lyra.
CHEERING
# Sinne Fianna Fail
# Ata faoi gheall ag Eirinn
# Buion dar slua
# Thar toinn do rainig chugainn
# Faoi mhoid bheith saor
# Seantir ar sinsear feasta
# Ni fhagfar faoin
tioran na faoin traill
# Anocht a theam sa bhearna bhaoil
# Le gean ar Ghaeil,
chun bais no saoil
# Le gunna-screach
faoi lamhach na bpilear
# Seo libh canaig' amhran
# Na bhFiann. #
- CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
- Oh, yeah.
Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo!
Woo!
Woohoo!
Woo!
That was awesome
Before long,
the crowds were behind us
and we were back in the car,
heading north to our last stop.
Giant's Causeway right over here.
Look at that coast.
Isn't that great?
I feel like, you know, like,
turning this GoPro that way,
rather than looking at me.
So much better a view that way.
Bill and I had both been
to the Giant's Causeway before,
where, 60 million years ago,
volcanic eruptions turned into
..well, this.
This is nice.
The causeway is hardly a secret,
but a place doesn't
become less meaningful
just because you can't keep it
for yourself.
One, and up one, and up two.
Who put these things here and why?
Well, the giants.
Let's get a selfie.
So the giants were bored
one day, right?
There we go.
Why?
I don't know. We just don't know.
- It's crazy.
- Freaky.
Hey, Bill, you want to get
a selfie right here?
Get one of you
The brothers right here.
It's quite amazing, though,
isn't it?
You don't want to be too flowery
about this place.
I mean, look at it.
It speaks for itself.
I remember the first time
I saw it, I thought
.."Wow, wow."
- Yeah.
- "Why doesn't everyone
in the world know about this?"
This is from, like,
my homeland. This is
You know, it's not just
the beauty of the place.
- This is a special spot bubbling
out of the ocean, you know?
- Yeah.
I say to people, you know,
"You'll never think of green
the same way
"once you've been to Ireland."
- Yeah.
- "You'll never think
of that colour the same way."
And the way that people live -
the kind of culture, the fun,
the craic - it speaks for itself.
You know, the trip
we're having here, you know,
we're doing things,
we're playing some golf.
The golf, of course is fun, but
..it gets really special when
you start speaking with someone.
That's when the real magic
can happen.
My parents brought me here
when I was young,
and it was kind of something
like they wanted to share,
like, this sense of, like, "You're
Irish, and let's go see Ireland,
"and see what that's about."
And I'm really grateful that
that happened.
I want to pass that on
to my kids as well.
But I've gotten to look at it
with a different,
a slightly different set of eyes
this time,
and I really appreciate that.
Well, it's hit me a number of
times while we've been here
that I wish we could just stop
moving and just stay right here.
There have been so many places
where I've said,
"Well, that's OK.
That's good enough right there.
"You can just leave me right there.
"I'll be OK right there,
really taking it all in."
We'd reached the end of our journey,
or at least the part
you measure on a map.
Wow.
When I first planned this trip,
I obsessed over the courses
we'd play, the routes we'd take.
All right, lads,
let's have some fun.
I wanted to give Bill
the perfect Irish itinerary.
CHEERING
Looking back, I don't think
Bill knew we had an itinerary.
Oh, I'm sorry!
Everywhere we went, he'd wander
toward whatever was happening.
Mr Cosby. Thanks for that.
A conversation.
- You're a bad hurler?
- Yes, yes.
A stranger.
There he is.
What do you think? He's joyous.
A shop that looked interesting.
People!
At first, I thought
he was getting distracted.
Got everybody?
Now, I'm pretty sure he was
paying closer attention than I was.
We met a guy on the side
of the road.
He said, "Do you want to go
swimming in the morning?"
And next thing you know,
I'm on the beach in my skivvies.
We sang.
SINGING AND CHEERING
We threw cannonballs down a road.
All those things
are sort of joyous things.
CHEERING
I mean, the golf is great,
but it's the people.
- But I'll see you
in the movies anyways.
- OK.
I'll be watching out for you.
You know, all this is some sort
of idea, like, that it's happened.
All this nature, all those people,
they're all part of some amazing,
amazing, amazing creation, you know?
It's right here.
It is right here.
And right here is a par-4.
There it is. Good hit.
Good trip. Good trip.
Spending these weeks with Bill
didn't make him any easier
to explain.
- I'm not going in.
- You're not going in?
You're never quite sure where the
sarcasm ends and the truth begins.
I thought we should have stopped
a couple of minutes ago.
LAUGHTER
He notices everything.
Look at that.
Is that who I think it is?
Look at how white his face is!
My God!
Mike! He looks like he's dead.
He'll test your patience.
Bill wants to have
a two-hour massage.
Two hours?
He'll reward it.
Here, just a second.
Come on in here.
Do you need a hat? Socks? A scarf?
He'll derail your plans.
CHEERING
We stopped to use the bathroom,
and now we're meeting
half of Ireland.
He'll remind you why you made them
in the first place.
Fire!
Oh!
Treat him like just
the funny guy from the movies,
and you're missing out.
Well, there's something
you don't see every day.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Isn't that lovely?
Oh, God, this touches my heart.
I've known Bill a long time,
and I thought I knew Ireland
pretty well too.
Tom, we thank you for inviting me.
Well, thank you for coming.
Funny how putting the two together
made me see something
new in them both.
You see that man there on the rock?
That's me, Bill Murray.