He had a friend that was a really good golfer. My son had golfed some, but was nowhere near as good as his friend.

So, my son tried out as a junior. His friend was on the varsity team, and my son made the JV team. Got to travel to multiple tournaments around the state. By the end of the year he had improved, but not enough to make varsity - so his senior year he was on JV again. Didn't matter - he loved it. The highlight of his career was one week one of the Varsity guys was sick, and my son had the best score in their practice round that week among the JV guys - so he got to play with the Varsity guys that week.

He didn't take it seriously enough that "only being JV" bugged him. He was having fun riding the bus around the state, getting to play for free at the local golf course, and being with friends.