It has been his dream for years to return to his beloved Turnberry course – one he describes as ‘probably the best in the world’ –for a quiet 18 holes in beautiful surroundings.
Yet, it would seem being Leader of the Free World offers few opportunities to enjoy such private moments undisturbed on his own golf course.
As he stepped onto the first tee at Turnberry’s drizzly Ailsa Course, dressed in black with white shoes and a white ‘USA’ baseball cap, he was surrounded by a 28-golf buggy ‘cavalcade’ of staff and advisers, dozens of police officers and a bank of photographers.
No pressure for that first drive then POTUS!
What police are calling Operation Roll 2 was now underway.
If his official aircraft is called Air Force One and his helicopter Marine One, it’s only fair to assume The Donald was at the wheel of Golf Buggy One.
His Presidential car, known as ‘The Beast’, is loaded with Bond-style gadgets believed to include smoke screens and door handles rigged to send a 120-volt electric shock to ward off attackers.
Was Golf Buggy One similarly equipped? Perhaps fitted with an ejector seat, capable of rapidly transporting America’s First Citizen from the second hole to the 14th green in an instant?
Well, perhaps not… but it was equipped with his own personal sound system, and the course rang to the pumping beat of some of his favourite tunes.
These included Uptown Girl by Billy Joel, Memory, from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats, All Out of Love, by Air Supply, Unchained Melody by the Righteous Brothers, and Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel.
When he stepped onto the first tee with son Eric, around 10.15am, you almost expected to hear the starter’s announcement: ‘All the way from Washington DC…’
It was difficult concentrating on the President’s rapid progress around the course.
An entire bush of yellow gorse suddenly moved to the right but it was only a couple of Scotland’s Finest blowing their cover – and keeping the President safe.
The police – estimated to number 5,000 officers – were less than chuffed at having to work 12-hour shifts to protect POTUS, even if did have Scottish blood in his veins.
Still, they had been well looked after by their bosses. As well as food and drink in their goodie bags, those on extended duty at the seaside course had been given tubes of sun cream, midge repellent and even lip balm to cope with the Ayrshire climate.
Some on duty didn’t crack a smile, however. These were the mysterious pairings of men walking around in wet weather jackets and black skip caps. The giveaway that they weren’t casual tourists from Oregon was the earpiece tucked into the collar of their shirts.
At Trump Turnberry yesterday you couldn’t tell your MI5 from your CIA. But the locals did seem to take it all in their stride.
One nice lady living on the edge of the Ailsa course was so good-natured you could imagine her taking out afternoon tea to the two snipers standing on the tower at the bottom of her garden.
Few strolled anywhere near the police cordon separating Trump’s hotel and golf resort from the outside world.
If they did, they could notice the drains on the road had been sealed with heavy-duty duct tape after being searched for explosives. Oh, and the metal barriers were strong enough to stop a Sherman tank.
Kay Smith travelled from Liverpool to show her support for the 47th President of the United States. Wearing a ‘Make America Great Again’ ensemble, the 38-year-old carer dropped her red, white and blue face mask to explain the reason behind her unusual weekend pilgrimage to the shadow of Ailsa Craig.
She said: ‘We just wanted to get a glimpse of Trump. We love him. We were at the airport on Friday night and caught sight of Air Force One but we’ve not managed to see him in the flesh yet.’
Miles of new 10ft fences with ultra-fine mesh had also been erected to keep protesters away – but most of them were miles away in Edinburgh and Aberdeen.
If the reasons behind the huge security presence were not so serious – an alleged assassination attempt was made last year as Mr Trump played golf in Florida – the scenes at the luxury resort on the West Coast of Scotland would be nigh on farcical.
The President is known to be impatient on the golf course and hates being held up. No fear at Turnberry as his was the only group on the course.
It’s handy when you can choose any tee time you want.
It is thought Mr Trump went round the course at breakneck speed – and was back at his hotel for lunch.
And his score? Well, who knows?
However, photographers perched on a windy hill around 150 yards away were adamant they spotted one rather ungentlemanly manoeuvre on the third fairway, after an errant ball from the President failed to land where it had been expressly told to land and ended up in the long grass.
The story goes a helpful caddie picked it up and dropped it in a more favourable lie, before Mr Trump seemed to nudge it himself with his club towards the hole.
Could the President have bent the hallowed rules of golf ever so slightly?
Or could it just be fake news?
