Joe Culleyenjoys golf correspondent Dermot Gilleece's engaging collection of interviews, anecdote, memoir and reminiscence

Touching Greatness: Memorable Encounters with Golfing Legends, Dermot Gilleece, Transworld Ireland, €12.99

Arnie Jack: Palmer, Nicklaus and Golf's Greatest Rivalry, Ian O'Connor, Houghton Mifflin, available online

Golf: The Cure for a Grumpy Old Man, Peter Alliss, Hodder and Stoughton, €21

Your 15th Club: The Inner Secret to Great Golf, Dr Bob Rotella, Simon Schuster, €15.99

Through The Lens: Pádraig Harrington's Three Major Victories, edited by Linton Walsh, for GolfDigest Ireland, €16.99

EVERY NEWSPAPER journalist quickly realises that only a small percentage of what he (or she) sees, hears or learns in the line of duty actually gets into the paper. Space is always at a premium, and anyway, often the most interesting bits are only tangential to the day's main business. In 30 years as one of Ireland's leading golf correspondents, for the most part at the behest of elders in this parish, Dermot Gilleece has enjoyed extraordinary access to the game's personalities, venues and competitions.

But while his polished reports add colour and insight to the big events of the day, the intriguing background noise that informs his work is usually filtered out.

Now Dermot has assembled Touching Greatness, an engaging collection of interviews, anecdote, memoir and reminiscence, much of which didn't see the light of day, or wasn't given the treatment it merited at the time.

The many fans of Dermot's Golfing Login this paper will recognise the sometimes quirky, insider's perspective on offer: what goes on behind the scenes - or inside the ropes.

But this is no mere rehash of old work. All the pieces are fresh, and the book has a wholly contemporary feel; it closes beside the pool of a rented house outside Detroit last August where Pádraig Harrington embraced both the Claret Jug and the Wanamaker trophy.

And of course there is the now added poignancy of a piece on the decline of Seve Ballesteros's golf game. No doubt the book was at the printers when the great man was taken to hospital in Madrid.

There's a revealing interview with David Feherty about life after he put the clubs away, the tale of a run-in between the Squire of Lytham and the IRA in Clifden in 1922, a long interview with Jack Nicklaus, a chat with Clarrie Reddan up at Baltray, a review of Ireland's successes in team golf . . . and a great deal more.

Outside of Irish golf, the book of the year is Ian O'Connor's Arnie Jack, an immensely entertaining work full of telling detail.

By 1973, three-times more people played golf than in 1960, and that was virtually entirely down to Palmer's appeal - and his battle with Nicklaus. Their rivalry on-course was ferocious - "We wanted to beat each other's brains out," Nicklaus said - and almost as intense off the course: Arnie designed courses, so Jack would design courses (very different courses). Arnie had private aircraft, Jack would get a plane. Arnold had his logo, a rainbow umbrella, Jack would have his Golden Bear - which Arnie referred to as the Golden Pig.

What kept that rivalry from deteriorating into bitterness was the great friendship of the wives, Winnie and Barbara.

Arnie Jack is a must for the game's aficionados.

Peter Alliss has produced a curious work: Golf: The Cure for a Grumpy Old Man. Clearly the publisher saw a chance to exploit a popular phenomenon, and roped in Alliss to front his effort. Well, no better man: Alliss writes as well as he speaks.

But it is still an odd concoction: a bit of history, a bit of beginner's instruction, a bit of memoir. It's all well done, and you can hear Alliss at the computer - though he would probably enjoy the conceit that he still works with an old Royal typewriter.

There's even a QA chapter: who's the best you ever saw, Peter? Are women golfers as good as men? Has the equipment changed the game?

If you already play the game but think you'd like to spend a bit of time in Alliss's company, then you should enjoy this. And if you are a stockbroker or banker of a certain age who has suddenly found yourself with time on your hands, this might indeed be just the cure.

If you take your golf just a bit more seriously - and let's be honest, very few of us should - Dr Bob Rotella, guru to the stars, has produced his seventh book on the mental aspects of the game. It seems the 15th club is Confidence.

Now, this stuff is not to everyone's taste. Obviously, Pádraig Harrington swears by the guy; I'm much more comfortable with Alliss and his grumpy mates. Jones and Nicklaus didn't need help getting their mind right.

And on that point, the chapter entitled "What I Learned from Pádraig Harrington" is intriguing.

Of course, Pádraig has won three majors and I still play off 20: you do the maths.

Finally, Through the Lens is a collection of photographs chronicling Harrington's three major victories. It includes a number of terrific shots and a great many more prosaic ones. But if someone in your house is a bit of a Paddy fanatic, then this will do nicely.