It’s a tale of two very different commander-in-chiefs.

Former US president Jimmy Carter, 92, spent this week building homes for the needy in Winnipeg, Canada.

Despite being rushed to hospital on Thursday after collapsing from dehydration under the hot sun, he returned to the construction site the following day after a clean bill of health.

This week was the 34th time that Jimmy and his 89-year-old wife Rosalynn have volunteered on a project with Habitat for Humanity, an affordable housing charity for vulnerable people.

While Mr Carter spent the day in a hard hat, current US president Donald Trump was watching golf.

He spent eight hours at the US Women’s Open, hosted at his own Trump National Golf Club in New Jersey.

President Trump smiles at crowds at the US Women's Open, hosted at his Trump National Golf Club in New Jersey (PA)

Friday was the 36th day he has spent at one of his own golf clubs in the 176 days of his presidency to date, according to trumpgolfcount.com, which tracks the president’s outings.

This means he has spent 20 per cent of his time in office at one of his own golf courses. At the same point in his presidency, Barack Obama had spent eight days at a golf course.

Friday was the first time a sitting president has attended the US Women’s Open. Such visits require a huge and costly security detail.

The outing comes after a week of revelations about his son Donald Trump Jr’s previously undisclosed meeting during the 2016 election campaign with a Russian lawyer linked to the Kremlin.

President Trump arrived at his course at 3.40pm, distracting attention from the players and leaving only a “small handful of fans” actually watching the course, reported the Washington Post.

Less than four hours later in Winnipeg, Mr Carter addressed the building project's closing ceremony, at which he was given a standing ovation.

"I look upon all the volunteers, in a very sincere way, as human rights heroes, and I thank you for it," he said.

Mr Carter joked that his "bringing attention to this Habitat project was completely unintentional".

President from 1977 to 1981, Democrat Mr Carter lost a landslide election to Ronald Reagan and left office with low popularity ratings.

But his work advancing human rights in the four decades since has made him one of the most admired former presidents.