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It’s not every day a former US president visits the home of golf – and the crowds flocked to watch Barack Obama finish up his round on the Old Course on Friday.

Obama was in Scotland ahead of speaking at a charity dinner organised by Scottish businessman and philanthropist Sir Tom Hunter in Edinburgh to help raise money for local youth charities.

He teed off shortly before lunchtime but wasn’t too impressed with his first shot on ‘the world’s widest fairway’. “Oh, that wasn’t so pretty,” he said afterwards.

While there were a few people watching the start of his round, word of mouth and news spreading on social media had hundreds, maybe even thousands, turn up to watch the climax of his round in late afternoon.

According to the Instagram account, Connoisseur Golf, it was the biggest non-tournament crowd since Bobby Jones turned up unannounced in the 1930s.

With the huge crowd watching on, the pressure got to the former president as he three-putted the 18th green, but reportedly still shot in the low 80s. Not bad at all for his first taste of golf in Scotland.

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