Flory Van Donck was born on 23 June 1912 in Tervueren, Belgium. Until the advent of Severiano Ballesteros and Bernhard Langer in the late 1970's, Van Donck was considered the greatest golf player ever produced by Continental Europe. Van Donck's fame rested on his great putting ability, though his style was unorthodox as he kept the toe of his putter in the air, similar to Isao Aoki.
Van Donck won his own national title 16 times between 1935 and 1968, and held most of the national titles in Europe at one time or another, including the Dutch Open (1936, 1937, 1951, 1953), the French Open (1954, 1957, 1958), The German Open (1953, 1956) and the Swiss Open (1953, 1955). He was second in the British Open in 1956 and 1959.