In a 2003 article Marshalltown author Rick Deines stated: “These days Larry Dennis is mostly unknown in his hometown of Marshalltown, Iowa. Nationally, however, Dennis is famous as a prolific writer of golf books, founder of the magazine Senior Golfer, Senior Editor and Technical Editor for Golf Digest, and winner of numerous awards for his writings on golf.”

The awards Dennis has received include the 1989 USGA International Book of the Year for “Golf’s Magnificent Challenge”, with famed golf course architect Robert Trent Jones. In all, he has published or edited more than 20 books, most of them instructional books co-authored with famous instructors like Bob Toski, Jim Flick, Jim McLean and Peter Kostis. He has also published books with famous players including Byron Nelson, David Graham, Al Geiberger, Raymond Floyd and Tom Kite.

Dennis honed his golf and writing skills in Marshalltown in the early 1950’s. He graduated from Marshalltown High in 1951 and Marshalltown Junior College in 1953. After serving in the army from 1953-55, and graduating from the University of Iowa in 1957, he returned to Marshalltown as Sports Editor of the Times-Republican. He won the Elmwood Four Ball in 1957 with partner Don Olson and lost in the semi-finals in 1963 to future PGA Tour player Jim Colbert and his partner Matt Tabor.

His newspaper career moved him to Lincoln, Neb. and Chicago before taking a job with Golf Digest in 1972. There he directed the magazine’s instruction and equipment programs; wrote extensively in those areas plus features on personalities, the PGA Tour and worked extensively with the magazine’s golf schools. He also wrote and helped direct the Bob Toski television series for NBC. By the time he left Golf Digest in 1985 he had published his first nine books.

He founded his own company “Creative Communications” in 1986 in Huntington, Conn. In 1992 he became the founding editor of “Senior Golfer” magazine, a position he held until 1998. Dennis, who retired to Florida, passed away on July 28, 2021.