Waiting for Augusta

by Jessica Lawson

  To my wonderful literary agent, Tina Wexler, thank you for encouraging me through this story’s writing and revision process. I’m so grateful for you.

  Thank you to wicked-talented cover/book designer Lizzy Bromley for all of her work and brilliance. Cover artist Kenard Pak, I feel so lucky to have your art nestling these pages. Huge amounts of gratitude belong to Justin Chanda and the entire team at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers for all that they do for readers and writers.

  To critique partners Joy McCullough-Carranza, Tara Dairman, Ann Bedichek, and Becky Wallace—you ladies are appreciated more than you know. A big thanks to Shelby Bach for reading/critiquing a version of this story years and years ago.

  Thanks to Rebecca Petruck and Patrick Robinette for their help in matters of pigs/hogs, Tom Fletcher of Capital/Colonial/Southern Trailways for bus route/fare information, and Nancy Glaser at the Augusta Museum of History. Thank you Mom and Dad for your fact-sleuthing assistance. The 18th hole’s yardage is a historical one that is not reflective of today’s course. Fictional liberties were taken in places to aid the novel’s plot, but any/all missteps in regard to pigs, barbecue, or Augusta National Golf Club’s course can be attributed to me, not the helpful folks listed.

  The protest scene in this book is based on an actual television clip that shows a group of people protesting elementary school desegregation in Augusta, Georgia, in mid-March, 1972, just weeks before Ben Hogan Putter would have arrived there. The fight for school integration in the United States carried on well into the 1970s, particularly in areas of the South mentioned in this book. “Segregation academies”—private schools formed in response to enforced integration of schools—were very much alive at the time. They still exist in certain forms.

  Finally, thank you to my husband, who loves golf—I’m hoping you’ll go to Augusta to watch the Masters one day and that you’ll get a chance to play at the Old Course in Scotland as well. To my brother-in-law Evan—I’m thankful for the day you stood in my kitchen and declared that, given the choice, you’d want your ashes scattered at Augusta National Golf Club’s 18th hole. Pretty crazy idea, brother.

  Jessica Lawson lives in a small town in Colorado with her husband, children, passing coal trains, and a backyard smoker named Granny. Old golf clubs—used for meditative swing practice, brandished as back scratchers, and ridden as imitation horsies—can be found in nearly every room of her house. Her other middle-grade novels are The Actual & Truthful Adventures of Becky Thatcher and Nooks & Crannies.

  Visit her online at

  jessicalawsonbooks.com.

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  Also by Jessica Lawson

  The Actual & Truthful Adventures of Becky Thatcher

  Nooks & Crannies

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  This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Text copyright © 2016 by Jessica Lawson

  Jacket illustration copyright © 2016 by Kenard Pak

  All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

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  Jacket design by Lizzy Bromley

  Interior design by Hilary Zarycky

  The text for this book is set in Adobe Caslon Pro.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Lawson, Jessica, 1980– author.

  Title: Waiting for Augusta / Jessica Lawson.

  Description: 1st edition. | New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, [2016] | Summary: In early 1970s Alabama, eleven-year-old Ben, carrying an urn with his father’s ashes, sets out on an eventful journey to the Augusta National, “the Sistine Chapel of golf courses,” to make peace with his father.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2015026346| ISBN 9781481448390 (hardback) | ISBN 9781481448406 (trade paper) | ISBN 9781481448413 (eBook)

  Subjects: | CYAC: Grief—Fiction. | Fathers—Fiction. | Runaways—Fiction. | Golf—Fiction. | Southern States—History—20th century—Fiction. | BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Fantasy & Magic. | JUVENILE FICTION / Action & Adventure / General. | JUVENILE FICTION / Sports & Recreation / Golf.

  Classification: LCC PZ7.L438267 Wai 2016 | DDC [Fic]—dc23

  LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015026346