Bill Murray's Ireland golf series is six episodes long, and the course list isn't the reason to watch

A Course Called Ireland is a six-part documentary series that follows Murray and author Tom Coyne around the island, north and south. It's named after Coyne's 2009 book, in which he spent 16 weeks walking Ireland's coastline and playing its 56 seaside courses. The show isn't a straight adaptation: no coastal hike, no B&B disasters. It was made by Skydance Sports and Stellify Media with the BBC, and showrun by Casey Scharf, who made Rainn Wilson and the Geography of Bliss, and Morgan Roberts.

It aired first on BBC One Northern Ireland and BBC iPlayer on October 23, 2026, then on BBC Two. In the US, all six episodes dropped on Paramount+ on October 25.

How long it is

Six episodes, about 30 minutes each, roughly three hours in all. You can finish it in an evening.

1. "Feels Like Home"
2. "The High Notes"
3. "The Devil Is in Him"
4. "Into the Fourth Quarter"
5. "From the Rough"
6. "Leave Me Right Here"

Episode 1 opens on the clifftop links at Old Head in Kinsale, County Cork, and the finale ends at the Giant's Causeway in County Antrim. In between, the courses include Cork Golf Club, Enniscrone, County Sligo and Cruit Island in Donegal, with stops in Clare and Down.

Murray has the credentials for it. He grew up caddying outside Chicago, which became Caddyshack, and he's a fixture at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

"I started out caddying, and golf was the best education I ever received," Murray said.

The golf is the excuse

The course list is the part a golf magazine can print. The show is everything that happens on the way to the first tee.

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The trip was shot in about three weeks with very loose daily plans, and Murray treats the plans as optional. In Dingle, he passes on a planned pub night with Chris O'Dowd and insists on going to a concert at St James' Church instead. He and Coyne try road bowling in Cork, meet a fortune-teller in a car park in Lisdoonvarna, read Yeats at Yeats' grave, stop for hurling in Clarecastle and swim in the Atlantic at Ballybunion. His young caddy refers to one of his films as The Phonetic Scheme, and that stayed in the final cut.

The first episode isn't even narrated by Murray. It's narrated by Margaret, a pensioner who spots him in Cobh, the harbor town where the Murray family's Irish roots are. Sitting by that harbor, Murray nearly tears up remembering how the Irish were treated in the Chicago he grew up in.

He also has family along: his brothers Joel and John Murray join him on Cruit Island, and Joanne McNally and Jason Kelce make appearances. Not that the star always plays along.

"It's not the [expletive] 'Bill Murray Show'!" Murray grumbles, as quoted by the Irish News.

It is, a bit. "It's definitely about Bill Murray," TheJournal's review concluded.

What critics say

Critics on both sides of the Atlantic can't agree on whether to be charmed or embarrassed:

• Irish News — "a thoroughly entertaining and often surprisingly touching watch" (David Roy)
• TheJournal.ie — "shouldn't be a good watch, but it is" (Carl Kinsella)
• LINKS Magazine — "possibly the year's best golf viewing" (Tony Dear)
• The Wall Street Journal — "A joy, with missed putts." (John Anderson)
• The Irish Times — "Murray is a lively presence but never exactly funny" (Ed Power)
• Irish Independent — "shambolic, low-energy, largely aimless stuff" (Pat Stacey)
• The Guardian — "a man who gives the impression of wishing to be anywhere else" (Sarah Dempster)

The Irish Times' problem is the postcard version of Ireland: Power's headline calls it a "schmaltzy Oirish tour." The fans of the show, meanwhile, keep praising what happens off the course.

For the record: the jogger called out "Bill Cosby!" Murray, according to the Irish News, was politely affectionate with her anyway.

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