{"id":5604,"date":"2026-11-11T09:07:00","date_gmt":"2026-11-11T05:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mikeoconnelljr.com\/?p=5604"},"modified":"2026-11-11T05:07:19","modified_gmt":"2026-11-11T01:07:19","slug":"a-course-called-bill-murray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikeoconnelljr.com\/?p=5604","title":{"rendered":"A Course Called Bill Murray"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A few months ago I picked up a new book at my local library. It was the latest in golf writer Tom Coyne’s A Course Called…<\/em> series, this one titled A Course Called Home<\/em>. It describes Coyne’s three years (or so) of refurbishment, management, and eventual ownership of the Sullivan County Golf Club in Liberty, New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Golden Age 9-holer in the heart of the Catskills<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So says its own propaganda, and I have no doubt that line describes it pretty well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the minor plot points of the book is that the author and protagonist is friends with comedian Bill Murray. Sure, everyone who’s ever met him would claim to be friends with Bill Murray, but Tom Coyne really is. So much so that Murray went in with him on the deal to buy the aforementioned golf course. (“Owns a golf course with Bill Murray” looks pretty good on your resume.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imagine my surprise about two weeks ago when I see advertised on Paramount Plus a six-episode series based on Coyne’s 2009 book, A Course Called Ireland<\/em>. For the show, Coyne is retracing his steps (and strokes) through the Emerald Isle, playing some of Ireland’s legendary golf courses and taking in all the country has to offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And imagine how not<\/em> surprised I was to see he’d brought along… Bill Murray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah, when you’re friends with Bill Murray, you put him in your TV show. And actually, you make the whole thing about Bill Murray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Duh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not gonna lie, the show is pretty great, even just Bill being Bill. Because that’s what it is. It’s not about golf, it’s not about Ireland, it’s kind of about everything, with Bill Murray at the center. Because isn’t he always?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To twist an old phrase, this is Bill’s golf course, we’re all just playing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A course called life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few months ago I picked up a new book at my local library. It was the latest in golf writer Tom Coyne’s A Course Called… series, this one titled A Course Called Home. It describes Coyne’s three years (or … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikeoconnelljr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikeoconnelljr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikeoconnelljr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikeoconnelljr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikeoconnelljr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5604"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mikeoconnelljr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5607,"href":"https:\/\/mikeoconnelljr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5604\/revisions\/5607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikeoconnelljr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikeoconnelljr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikeoconnelljr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}