The February 2010 cover of Vanity Fair will feature a bare-chested, buff Tiger Woods. The striking and intense image was captured prior to Tiger’s multi-mistress scandal by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz.
Leibovitz said, “Tiger is an intensely competitive athlete–and quite serious about his sport. I wanted to reveal that in these photos. And to show his incredible focus and dedication.”
The accompanying story titled, Tiger in the Rough, was written by Buzz Bissinger without Tiger’s participation.
When Tiger Woods finally fell from his pedestal—the car crash, the angry wife, the tales of kinky extramarital sex, the link to a controversial sports doctor—it was one of the greatest recorded drops in popularity of any nonpolitical figure. Given Woods’s impenetrable mask of perfection, and the hints of trouble from one strange glimpse behind it, the revelations were inevitable and very, very costly. Annie Leibovitz catches the icon, pre-scandal, in prophetic isolation, while the author finds the clues in the wreckage.
The disgraced golfer has not been seen since late November. Rumors are that he is staying at Trump International Hotel in New York City — with a leggy blonde — while his wife Elin was skiing in the French Alps. Other reports suggest he has checked himself into a treatment program in Arizona.
The February issue of Vanity Fair will be available on newsstands in New York and L.A. on Wednesday, January 5, and nationwide on Tuesday, January 12.
