He was in such an ebullient mood that he was even prepared to risk his famous coiffure in the north-east wind.
Donald Trump, flanked by the former Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie, this week cut the ribbon to open his controversial £100 million Trump International Links at Menie Estate, just north of Aberdeen.
Apart from the omnipresent rain of this summer, and the notable absence of any significant representative from the Scottish Government, nothing was out of place after seven years of battles with protesters, environmentalists and politicians to see Trump’s vision of what he believes is ”the world’s greatest course” finally complete.
That included Mr Trump’s hair, which survived the removal of his cap after some good-natured nagging from press photographers during Tuesday’s opening ceremony on the first tee of the spectacular new course, which opens to the public on Sunday.
The American property tycoon was joined by Montgomerie, the European Tour chief executive George O’Grady and PGA of Britain chief Sandy Jones during the ceremony.
The Scottish pro Martin Laird was also present, but former Open champion Paul Lawrie, a long-time supporter of the Trump project which will stretch to £750 million if all the various elements are completed had his helicopter grounded in Inverness and had to call off.
There was little political presence, a legacy of Trump’s dispute with Holyrood over plans to build windfarms off the coastline near the site.
The rain eased a little for the ceremony as a proud Trump dedicated the course to the memory of his Scottish-born mother, Mary.
”This has been long sought and we are very proud of it,” he said. ”I want to congratulate all of the people who have worked so hard and long and toiled. You have no idea the hours that they spent walking every dune, trying to preserve every single inch of this land.”
He continued: ”This is going to be a very important thing for the city of Aberdeen, for Aberdeenshire and Scotland.
”When I bought the land seven years ago, I looked at it and said I really believe on this piece of land we can create the greatest golf course anywhere in the world. We have built something that some people have already said is perhaps the greatest golf course in the world. I think it’s something that is going to be very special and hopefully iconic.”
Trump paid tribute to R&A chief executive Peter Dawson for ”the greatest recommendation ever” in suggesting course architect Martin Hawtree.
He continued: ”It was one of the great pieces of advice I ever had, because Martin really fulfilled every ounce of what he thought he had in him.
”This is a special place and Scotland is a special place. My mother was a great woman, she loved Scotland, would go back there every year religiously and she would be very proud today.”
Trump hit the first tee shot into the left rough, followed by Montgomerie down the middle, and the veteran Scot expressed his approval.
”It is an honour for me to be here on behalf of the European Tour to witness this marvel that we have here,” he said. ”It makes me very proud to be a professional Scottish golfer here today, witnessing the opening of this fantastic course. We hope that this is the start of something very big and let’s hope that we can have many tournaments here in the future.”Opinion: controversial but extraordinaryYou wouldn’t expect Donald Trump to take one step back from any of his bolder statements, and he wasn’t doing it at the opening of his International Links.
”I said when we came here we could build the greatest golf course in the world and many people already believe we have done that,” he said.
Putting aside all the various machinations political, fiscal or environmental you cannot deny that this is an extraordinary golf course.
Designer Martin Hawtree has fashioned the spectacular, both in terms of golfing challenge and of the views, out of Scotland’s best remaining stretch of untouched linksland.
Trump, Hawtree and their acolytes are adamant that environmental considerations have been paramount and what they have done will preserve the site.
Economically, if the entire £750 million project including the un-built hotel and houses stands up, the north east surely can’t help but benefit. But those issues can only be accurately assessed at a later date.
The reality now is that Trump got his approvals, and what he has built is a course unlike anything anywhere in the world visibly a worthy addition to Scotland’s unequalled golfing heritage.
Some of the holes here are as good as anything I’ve seen in three decades of pursuing the game in one form or another.
Holes like the short third and sixth, or the wonderful, natural 14th, are truly awesome not in the modern, neutered usage of that word, but actually because they can induce gasps.
The bottom line is that if the rest of the project were to stall, if Trump were to up and leave in a pique about windfarms, we’d still be left with this magnificent golf course.
Sorry to be selfish about a silly game, but to me that would still seem a pretty good outcome.
Photo by Andrew Milligan/PA Archive