It seems like this always happens with the ever-aging Davis Love III. Play well early, give us a reason to get excited, and then stumble on the weekend.

Love, who turned 46 in April, has won just one tournament since 2006, but continues to show up a couple of times a year in the bigger events. This week, at Quail Hollow, one of the biggest non-majors of the year, Love has turned it on again, posting a Saturday 68 that has him right behind surprising leader Billy Mayfair.

On a weekend that mostly was about how Tiger Woods would play in a tournament that wasn’t Augusta-guarded, the unexpected pros are out in full force. Along with Mayfair and Love,  J.J. Henry is in contention, along with Paul Goydos and Bo Van Pelt.

But, it’s Love who made it known on Saturday that Fred Couples isn’t the only old guy that can still has game.

If Love wins, it would be huge for a guy that has, by all accounts, underperformed in his career. Arguably one of the best golfers of the ’90s, Love only claimed one major championship, and if not for a final round 64 at the 2003 Players, the best final round of this decade, the last 10 years would be a big disappointment.

But, alas, Love is in contention at an event with all the big names, and has a chance on Sunday to take home his 21st PGA Tour victory. A win would get him back in the Masters field that he’s missed out on since the last two years, and show people that the man with the sweet swing can still do it in the clutch.

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For only the sixth time in the history of the PGA Tour, the following words will be typed: Tiger Woods missed the cut on Friday.

The only difference at the 2010 Quail Hollow Championship is there was never a chance of Woods making the cut, as he hacked, slashed and shanked his way to a 79, his highest round in a tournament on United States soil.

How bad did it get for Tiger in the second round? Well, along with the above stat, his inward 43, which included three bogeys to start and consecutive double-bogeys on 14 and 15, matched his worst nine-hole score as a PGA Tour golfer.

Photos: Tiger misses the cut at Quail Hollow

After the round, Tiger offered up something to The Golf Channel that might surprise you when you look at his scorecard.

"I didn’t play that poorly on the front nine, but my short game was terrible … it is what it is, but whatever it was, it wasn’t good enough."

The look on Tiger’s face as he offered up those words was something you don’t see a lot from the world’s number one when he speaks of his golf game. He looked beat down, similar to his eyes when he chatted to the media for the first time after all the news came out about his infidelities.

Tiger hit just 14 percent of his fairways Friday and 61 percent of his greens in regulation, and he needed 34 putts. All three of the big statistics (driving accuracy, GIR and putting) were 114th or worse in the field, with his driving accuracy ranking last at Quail Hollow. Ouch. 

Prior to Friday, Woods had only missed five cuts in 241 starts in his career. Two of those were majors, the 2006 U.S. Open immediately after the death of his father and the 2009 British Open. Woods holds one of the most remarkable records in all of sports: the all-time record for most consecutive cuts made. From 1998 to 2005, he made 142 straight cuts, obliterating Byron Nelson’s record of 113. (For comparison, almost all other golfers miss at least one or two cuts over the course of a single season.)  

On Thursday I wrote that we need not worry after an opening 74 from Woods, but after this abysmal 79, it seems like the panic button should be pushed. His swing is atrocious right now, and next week the tour heads to an event where you can’t miss shots if you plan on making the weekend. The Players is also an event that Tiger has struggled at of late.

But, as we have always learned from Tiger Woods, the time you start to count him out is the time he pounces back on the scene. In 2002, when Tiger shot a shuddering 81 at the British Open in the third round, it was a shock to everyone. What did he do after that? Won his next event, and then another three weeks later.

It’s tempting to blame Woods’ awful performance on his recent troubles, and it’s also probably correct. Woods always gets amped up for the majors, and so his fourth-place finish at Augusta wasn’t a surprise. But with nothing to prove, no burning reason to challenge himself, Tiger had to rely on his skills rather than his mindset to carry him through, and his skills are rusty indeed.

Still, it’s a reminder that golf is bigger than everyone. Tiger owned the game for many years, but it now seems golf’s reminding him who’s really in charge.

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As Tiger Woods plays in the Quail Hollow this week, the first non-major since his troubles began, we’re finally reaching a natural closing point to this saga. So let’s take a look at some of the major questions that still surround Tiger and the golf world. Today: What will the long-term effects of this scandal be?

Twenty years from now, the Tiger Woods scandal is likely to be something of a historical oddity, a remember-when for people of a certain age. It’s all-consuming when you’re in the middle of it, but with the passage of time, you wonder what all the fuss was about. So let’s consider how the big actors in this drama will be affected from here on out:

Tiger. Obviously, the damage done to him is, to some extent, irreparable. This scandal will be a subtext of every story that delves more deeply into him than the day’s play for the rest of his career. But if he’s able to shake off the rust and get at least one major win this year — and more importantly, if he’s able to make a serious run at Jack Nicklaus’ majors record — this will fade farther into the background.

The other PGA players. I’d imagine things will get a wee bit tougher for players in the public eye these days. Woe betide the pro who decides to go out for a little extracurricular entertainment. And I’d imagine the wives are taking a little closer look at what their men are doing on those tournament trips, too.

The media. The golf media discovered something of a spine during the Woods scandal, then went right back to fawning over Phil Mickelson. The established sports media also got their first real taste of the fighting-dirty, sources-be-damned methods of the tabloid media. And the next athlete scandal, wherever it shows up, will make for an interesting case study in how well the lesson stuck.

The mistresses. They’ll be largely forgotten, except for one or two who will show up on VH1 clip shows and the like whenever there’s a "2000s retrospective." And that’s probably for the best.

The sponsors. If Tiger wins, they’ll come back. And if they don’t, others will.

The fans. Chances are, they’ll almost all be back. Eventually.

The drug allegations. This is the big one. This is where the real story could come from in the entire Woods scandal. Woods has denied using any form of performance-enhancing drug, but fully one-fourth of the PGA players surveyed by Sports Illustrated don’t believe him. If it breaks that he did use drugs, that’ll make this scandal look like a gentle massage. So to speak.

So there you have it. This may have been the biggest sports story of the year, but the longer we go, the less I think it’s going to have any real staying power. It’ll be present in any discussion of Woods, yes, but I see this fading into the past fairly rapidly. You?

The "Wrapping Up Tiger" series:

• Monday: How ready is a non-Augusta tournament to host Tiger Woods?
• Tuesday: How can Tiger Woods continue to repair his image?
• Wednesday: How will the Tiger Woods story change the world of golf?
• Thursday: What did everybody learn from the Tiger Woods saga?
• Today: What will be the long-term effects of Tiger’s story?