NYPD Officer Gets to Play

Shaun Micheel arrived at Disney World feeling the strain of trying to keep his PGA Tour card.

He wound up sharing the first-round lead, but his perspective changed quickly Thursday when he got to the first tee.

Micheel’s amateur partner was supposed to be a New York stockbroker. Instead, the spot was given to Patrick Marcune, a 22-year veteran of the New York Police Department who had been at ground zero since the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

It was a welcome respite for Marcune, 44, who wore a navy blue shirt with the NYPD seal on his chest and the bold letters printed on the back. He has been working on the “bucket brigade,” a crew that hands off buckets of debris from the crumpled towers.

“This has been very therapeutic for me,” Marcune said. “You can only look at death for so long.”

Marcune, who lives in Brooklyn, said stockbroker Gene Singer had to cancel because his wife was ill, and recommended that the spot go to a police officer, with Singer paying the $8,500 entry fee.

“NYPD said, ‘You’ve been selected. Go down there and do us proud,”’ Marcune said.