McCarthy family hosts McCarthy-Brothers Bond golf tournament at Thomas Memorial

TURNERS FALLS — The first-ever McCarthy-Brothers Bond tournament at Thomas Memorial Golf & Country Club commenced on Saturday, with rousing success in a fundraising effort for families dealing with complex health conditions and developmental disabilities in their children.

Mike and Angela McCarthy started the McCarthy-Brothers Bond Foundation after their son, Shane, passed away from acute bacterial meningitis in 2023.

“We started this foundation shortly after Shane passed,” Mike McCarthy said. “As a way to help us get through the tragedy and make something good out of something terrible. That’s the one thing we get satisfaction from during challenging times. Helping other people really helps us. Now we are on the receiving end of it.”

The tournament, which was the first fundraiser for the foundation, was a four-person scramble. 18 total teams participated. Participants played on a picturesque day for golf. Sunny and warm along with a faint whisper of a breeze.

“I would consider the day a huge success,” Angela McCarthy said. “Of course the most important part was that mother nature cooperated. Made it a beautiful day. We had a great turnout with such a vast array of people. All parts of our lives and our kids’ lives…people out making memories with people they care about.”

The tournament quickly reached capacity within seven days of the posting.

“We’ve had some great support from community,” Angela McCarthy said. “People near and far..one thing I am excited about for the tournament is that there are some sets of brothers that are playing. Father and sons. Father and daughters. Bringing family together is truly what the foundation is about. Spending time together. It’s a true testament to what we are trying to do with it.”

Michael McCarthy works for Deerfield Academy and plays in the K of C League at Thomas Memorial, so the event had ample representation from Franklin County. Most of the participants knew Shane McCarthy before his passing.

“Some of my friends and colleagues from Deerfield played,” Michael McCarthy said. “A lot of other people who came into contact with Shane during his life. Some people local, Franklin County type of people. Others in the Eastern part of the state where Shane spent summers with my mom on the Cape. Friends that he made there. Some college friends. I would call it a melting pot of a lot of people.”

June 27 was Shane McCarthy’s birthday. He would have been 24 years-old. The family received a lot of support in their effort to get the tournament off the ground.

“A lot of people wanted to be involved and volunteered to help us with the logistics,” Michael McCarthy said. “Coming up with the rules and the teams. It’s been a great group effort.”

Many of the players involved in the tournament were young adults who went to high school and knew Shane and his brother Colin McCarthy.

“It’s nice to know that people who grew up with our boys still want to be a part of things now,” Angela McCarthy said. “Even though they weren’t necessarily in each other’s lives recently. It’s overwhelming the support we’ve had from the community but the width of Shane’s touch and the number of people he impacted.”

To learn more about the non-profit foundation, click here.

“Our goal is to get the foundation information out there,” Michael McCarthy said. “Hopefully spend more of the money on people who we might be getting in touch with who might have some need. We really want to get our foundation out there to spend the money we raised.”

The foursome of Samantha Smith, Parker Hickey, Melvin Moreno and Chris Zukowski took first place, winning a cash prize that they donated back to the foundation. The team finished with a score of 56. Mike McCarthy took the honors of closest to the pin, with a beauty of a shot on the ninth hole. The shot landed five feet, nine inches from the cup. Other results included: Closest to the Pin: Ray Tuttle on the seventh (six feet, 11 inches); Closest to the Line: Robin Deane on the sixth.