Trump's golfing has been a security challenge for the Secret Service

Former President Donald Trump's love of golf has long posed a protective challenge for the Secret Service, which prefers armoured vehicles and enclosed buildings to golf carts and the wide-open expanses of fairways and greens. Although members of Trump's protective detail are always close at hand, the agency's approach to guarding the ex-prez on his courses has been inconsistent. In some instances, Secret Service personnel accompanying Trump have used hand-held magnetometers to screen people for weapons.

In others, spectators, vendors and reporters have walked alongside Trump without being searched at all. Agents sometimes warn people from getting too close to Trump, but the ex-prez has usually embraced a laid-back atmosphere, inviting people to pose for pictures or talk with him. Trump drives his own golf cart, which, aside from the presidential seal, looks much like any other golf cart, devoid of bullet-resistant glass or other overt protective measures.

He is often alone, with the nearest agents yards away in their own carts. Only occasionally can the service's black sport-utility vehicles get close enough to the holes to be seen nearby while Trump is playing. Some agents monitor for threats beyond Trump's immediate area. At his course near Washington, some scan the Potomac river. Others stand behind him, looking out for trouble.