Flory Van Donck
Flory Van Donck | |||||
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Personal information | |||||
Full name | Flory Van Donck | ||||
Born | (1912-06-23)23 June 1912 Tervuren, Belgium | ||||
Died | 14 January 1992(1992-01-14) (aged 79) | ||||
Sporting nationality | Belgium | ||||
Spouse | Maria-Hendrika Renneboog | ||||
Children | Marc, Claudine | ||||
Career | |||||
Turned professional | c. 1931 | ||||
Professional wins | 60 | ||||
Best results in major championships | |||||
Masters Tournament | T32: 1958 | ||||
PGA Championship | DNP | ||||
U.S. Open | DNP | ||||
The Open Championship | 2nd/T2: 1956, 1959 | ||||
Achievements and awards | |||||
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Flory Van Donck (23 June 1912 – 14 January 1992) was a Belgian professional golfer.
Van Donck is widely regarded as the greatest ever Belgian golfer. During his career, he won more than fifty tournaments worldwide, including many of the most prestigious national opens of Europe. He also finished as runner up in The Open Championship on two occasions.[1]
Career
Van Donck was born in Tervuren, Flemish Brabant. Until the likes of Seve Ballesteros and Bernhard Langer burst onto the golf scene in the late 1970s, Van Donck was one of the few golfers from continental Europe who had been able to win regularly in professional tournaments in Britain. Much of 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.[1]
Van Donck held most of the national open titles in Europe at one time or another, including the Belgian Open and Dutch Open (five times each), Italian Open (four times), French Open (three times), German Open and Swiss Open (twice each), and Portuguese Open (once).[1] In 1953 he won a total of seven tournaments on the European circuit, a record he still shares with Norman Von Nida who achieved the feat in 1947, and was awarded the Harry Vardon Trophy.[2]
In addition to his victories around Europe, Van Donck dominated in his home country, winning the Belgian national title sixteen times between 1935 and 1968 and the Professional Tournament of the Alliance on ten occasions. In 1960 he was awarded the Trophée National du Mérite Sportif, the highest honour that is awarded to Belgian sportsmen in recognition of his achievements.[3]
Van Donck was runner up in The Open Championship twice. In 1956 at Hoylake, he finished three strokes behind Peter Thomson, and in 1959 at Muirfield he finished alongside Fred Bullock two strokes adrift of Gary Player.[1] Such was his consistency, he did not finish outside the top five for five years succession from 1955, and finished inside the top 10 eight years out of ten during the 1950s.
He represented Belgium in the Canada Cup, latterly the World Cup, on 19 occasions.[4] His last appearance was in 1979 as a 67-year-old, when he became the oldest player ever to participate in the World Cup.[5] In 1960, he was the lowest-scoring player (for the International Trophy) at Portmarnock in Ireland, from a field that included some of the sports all-time greats, such as Sam Snead, Arnold Palmer, Bobby Locke, Gary Player, Peter Thomson and Kel Nagle.
Tournament wins (60)
this list is incomplete
- 1936 Dutch Open
- 1937 Dutch Open
- 1938 Italian Open
- 1939 Belgian Open
- 1946 Belgian Open, Dutch Open
- 1947 Manchester Evening Chronicle Tournament, Belgian Open, Italian Open
- 1951 Dutch Open, Silver King Tournament, North British-Harrogate Tournament
- 1952 Southern Professional Championship
- 1953 Belgian Open, Dutch Open, German Open, Italian Open, Swiss Open, Silver King Tournament, Yorkshire Evening News Tournament
- 1954 French Open, Uruguayan International Golf Championship
- 1955 Italian Open, Portuguese Open, Swiss Open
- 1956 Belgian Open, German Open
- 1957 French Open, Venezuela Open (Feb)
- 1958 French Open
- 1960 Canada Cup (individual title), Omnium of Belgium
- 1962 Lancia d'Oro
- 1963 Omnium of Belgium
- 1964 Omnium of Belgium
- 1965 Omnium of Belgium
- 1966 Omnium of Belgium
- 1968 Omnium of Belgium
- Belgian Professional Championship: 16 wins
- Professional Tournament of the Alliance: 10 wins
Results in major championships
Tournament | 1938 | 1939 |
---|---|---|
Masters Tournament | ||
The Open Championship | CUT |
Tournament | 1940 | 1941 | 1942 | 1943 | 1944 | 1945 | 1946 | 1947 | 1948 | 1949 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Masters Tournament | NT | NT | NT | |||||||
The Open Championship | NT | NT | NT | NT | NT | NT | T28 | T21 | T7 | CUT |
Tournament | 1950 | 1951 | 1952 | 1953 | 1954 | 1955 | 1956 | 1957 | 1958 | 1959 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Masters Tournament | T32 | |||||||||
The Open Championship | T9 | T24 | 7 | T20 | T10 | T5 | 2 | T5 | T5 | T2 |
Note: Van Donck only played in the Masters Tournament and The Open Championship.
NT = No tournament
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
Team appearances
- World Cup (representing Belgium): 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960 (individual winner), 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1979
- Joy Cup: (representing the Rest of Europe): 1954, 1955, 1956, 1958
References
- ^ a b c d Alliss, Peter (1983). The Who's Who of Golf. Orbis Publishing. pp. 319–320. ISBN 0-85613-520-8.
- ^ Farrell, Andy (12 September 1999). "Monty nears heaven's gate". The Independent. London. Retrieved 15 August 2009.
- ^ "Flory Van Donck Cup". Total International Juniors. Archived from the original on 10 August 2009. Retrieved 15 August 2009.
- ^ "Most appearances in World Cup history". PGA Tour. 2 November 2009. Archived from the original on 28 November 2009.
- ^ "Did you know?". PGA Tour. Archived from the original on 30 November 2009. Retrieved 15 August 2009.
External links
- Mention of Flory Van Donck's year of death[permanent dead link] (in Dutch)
- v
- t
- e
- 1928 Louis Crooy and Victor Groenen
- 1929 Georges Ronsse
- 1930 Hyacinte Roosen
- 1931 René Milhoux and Jules Tacheny
- 1932 not awarded
- 1933 Jef Scherens
- 1934 Union SG
- 1935 Count Arnold de Looz-Corswarem
- 1936 Ernest Demuyter
- 1937 Joseph Mostert
- 1938 Hubert Carton de Wiart
- 1939 Commandant Henry de Menten de Horne
- 1940 Fernande Caroen
- 1941 Jan Guilini
- 1942 Pol Braekman
- 1943 Prince Albert de Ligne
- 1944 not awarded
- 1945 Flying personnel of the Belgian Royal Air Force-section
- 1946 Gaston Reiff
- 1947 Micheline Lannoy and Pierre Baugniet
- 1948 Étienne Gailly
- 1949 Feru Moulin
- 1950 Briek Schotte
- 1951 Johnny Claes and Jacky Ickx
- 1952 André Noyelle
- 1953 Crew of the Yacht Omoo (Mr. and Mrs. Van de Wielle and Fred Debels)
- 1954 Adolph Verschueren
- 1955 Roger Moens
- 1956 Gilberte Thirion
- 1957 Jacques Brichant and Philippe Washer
- 1958 René Baeten
- 1959 Belgium men's national field hockey team
- 1960 Flory Van Donck
- 1961 Rik Van Looy
- 1962 Gaston Roelants
- 1963 Aurèle Vandendriessche
- 1964 Joël Robert
- 1965 First jachtwing of the Belgian Air Component
- 1966 Raymond Ceulemans
- 1967 Ferdinand Bracke and Eddy Merckx
- 1968 Jacky Ickx
- 1969 Serge Reding
- 1970 Freddy Herbrand
- 1971 Emiel Puttemans
- 1972 Karel Lismont
- 1973 Roger De Coster
- 1974 Paul Van Himst
- 1975 Jean-Pierre Burny
- 1976 Ivo Van Damme
- 1977 Gaston Rahier
- 1978 Anderlecht
- 1979 Robert Van de Walle
- 1980 Belgium national football team
- 1981 Annie Lambrechts
- 1982 Ingrid Berghmans
- 1983 Eddy Annys
- 1984 André Malherbe
- 1985 not awarded
- 1986 William Van Dijck
- 1987 Ingrid Lempereur
- 1988 Eric Geboers
- 1989 Michel Preud'homme
- 1990 Jan Ceulemans
- 1991 Jean-Michel Saive
- 1992 Annelies Bredael
- 1993 Vincent Rousseau
- 1994 Brigitte Becue
- 1995 Fred Deburghgraeve
- 1996 Johan Museeuw
- 1997 Luc Van Lierde
- 1998 Ulla Werbrouck
- 1999 Gella Vandecaveye
- 2000 Joël Smets
- 2001 Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin
- 2002 Marc Wilmots
- 2003 Stefan Everts
- 2004 Axel Merckx
- 2005 Tom Boonen
- 2006 Kim Gevaert and Tia Hellebaut
- 2007 Belgian Women's 4×100 metres relay team
- 2008 not awarded
- 2009 Philippe Gilbert
- 2010 Philippe Le Jeune
- 2011 Kevin Borlée
- 2012 Evi Van Acker
- 2013 Frederik Van Lierde
- 2014 Daniel Van Buyten
- 2015 Belgian men's 4 × 400 metres relay team
- 2016 Nafissatou Thiam
- 2017 David Goffin
- 2018 Nina Derwael
- 2019 Belgium men's national field hockey team
- 2020 Wout van Aert
- 2021 Bashir Abdi
- 2022 Remco Evenepoel
- 2023 Bart Swings