Martin Laird lives in a world now where one missed putt costs him nearly £250,000.
That was the difference between finishing runner-up on his own and being part of a four-way tie for second at the Players Championship on Sunday night.
It also cost Scotland's top golfer almost 18 world ranking points, which in turn meant he moved up 'only' to 19th on the European Ryder Cup list rather than 14th.
And if you care to add on to that the points he would have had if he had been a member of the European Tour last September - when the race for places began - rather than this January, Laird would now be sitting in one of the 10 qualifying spots.
But the 29-year-old Glaswegian knows the first lesson of being a professional sportsman - focus on the positives rather than the negatives when things do not quite go as you hoped.
So instead of dwelling on that last hole bogey at Sawgrass he said: "It is my best finish in a big, big marquee event and if I can't take confidence in that then I'm doing something wrong.
"I'm definitely going to take the positives. I drove the ball great and putted great. To be in contention at the Players Championship shows I'm in the right spot."
How Laird's quest for a Ryder Cup debut in September plays out remains to be seen, but it could work in his favour that this year's match is in Chicago rather than Europe.
With two PGA Tour victories and now five runner-up finishes - two of them this season already - he has clearly demonstrated his game is suited to American conditions.
He also reached the quarter-finals of the Accenture Match Play Championship in Arizona in February, beating Alvaro Quiros, Matteo Manassero and compatriot Paul Lawrie - all potential rivals for a cup spot - before losing to Lee Westwood.
What could count against him if he fails to earn an automatic spot, however, is that Jose Maria Olazabal brought the number of wild cards down from three to two, something predecessor Colin Montgomerie disagrees with.
Paul Casey's injury has shown up the inherent dangers in that.
Casey has already missed the first two months of the season and now he is out again after further problems with the shoulder he dislocated snowboarding in Colorado on Christmas Eve.
Even if he recovers fitness he is going to have a tough task playing himself into the side, but if he is playing well come August he has to come into Olazabal's thoughts.
As things stand, the favourites for the two captain's picks are probably Ian Poulter and Laird, narrowly from Francesco Molinari, a world championship winner and recent impressive winner of the Spanish Open - albeit against a weak field.
Poulter, though, will hope to move into an automatic qualifying spot this week when he defends the Volvo World Match Play title in Spain - against another weak field compared to last year.
