Put that in the category of “questions we’ll never know the answer to,” but there’s research to suggest Scheffler’s chances would have improved had he not been forced to react to Viktor Hovland’s make in the Travelers playoff moments earlier. A 2001 study by psychologists Sian L. Beilock and Thomas H. Carr addressed this very dynamic. Under pressure, Beilock and Carr said our brains bring step-by-step attention to tasks that usually come naturally, which means Scheffler’s four-footer became more difficult the moment it went from a putt he wanted to make to one he needed to make. Other research points specifically to the order of play, one from a study of professional soccer penalty kicks that stated the team that went first won roughly 60 percent of the time. Here, the same logic applied: since penalty kicks are relatively easy to score on, the second team is usually trailing, which means they’re facing more pressure than the team that went first, and their job is more difficult as a result.