Retirement Is A Personal Choice

Mr. Armstrong, who is well past the age when most men begin receiving pensions, has been a dominating market-mover in the resource and energy sectors for over five decades, has been a leader in real estate and unquestionably is the king of casinos in British Columbia through his control of Gateway Income Trust. He has no secrets when it comes to being successful and retirement is not something he will even consider.

In Arnold Armstrong's words: "I don't have any secrets. I just get interested in things. And money doesn't matter anymore, obviously. But I just like to be successful."

On the subject of retirement . . .

"I don't know why anybody who enjoys their work would retire unless they're retiring to something they enjoy better. And I don't see it. I mean, if you retire, you go in for golf. Well, all of a sudden, you get so involved in golf, that it's just work. That's your work, is golf. Well, who wants golf for work? I like deals. And I like people. I like putting things together."

And the key to his longevity?

"I work out every morning, every morning."

(Armstrong was the subject of an interview in 2009 published in the GOLD SPECULATOR)

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Now, there are certainly some similarities between Arnold Armstrong, who does not play golf, and Doug Roxburgh, who retires at the end of this month from executive duties with Golf Canada and is very much looking forward to playing lots of golf. Both are highly motivated and dedicated in their chosen fields of endeavour. Both are competitive and highly respected.

In today's Vancouver Sun hockey & golf columnist Brad Zeimer produced the following column on what retirement will mean for Roxburgh.

ROXBURGH RETIRES FROM GOLF CANADA

Amateur champ looking forward to playing competitive golf at senior leve

In golfing terms, 2012 figures to be Doug Roxburgh's senior moment.

After a dozen years, Roxburgh is retiring from Golf Canada, where he served as director of high performance, and that can only mean one thing for the 13-time B.C. Amateur champion.

More golf. Specifically, more competitive golf at the senior level.

Better late than never. Roxburgh, who turns 60 later this month, has been eligible to play as a senior for the past five years.

But the job was too busy, especially during golf season, so he took a mulligan. Now he plans to get semi-serious again with the game he dominated for so many years as an amateur.

He'll play in next summer's B.C. Senior Amateur at Nanaimo Golf Club. Roxburgh admits his timing is not perfect.

"Yeah, over at Sandy Harper's backyard in Nanaimo," he says with a laugh. "He's a senior for the first time at his own club. He's already licking his chops."

Like Roxburgh, Harper is a former B.C. Amateur (1980) and B.C. Junior Boys (1974) champion. This past summer he won the Pacific Northwest Golf Association Men's Mid-Amateur Championship.

So Roxburgh will have his work cut out for him.

"I knew that at some point my time would come again," he says. "I am looking forward to playing. I just have to get out and play, some of those seniors play a lot. It's going to be tough. I have to get my game back."

That figures to be like riding a bike for Roxburgh, who also won four Canadian Amateur titles and is a member of both the Canadian and B.C. golf halls of fame.

Kris Jonasson, the long-time executive director of British Columbia Golf, expects Roxburgh to collect some senior hardware.

"Doug is not at the top of the leaderboard any more at the B.C. Amateur, but he is certainly capable on any given golf course of finishing in the top 25," Jonasson says. "Given that level of competitiveness, I think he still has a chance to dominate senior golf for a while."

Roxburgh officially retires at the end of this month, but will stay on and do some consulting work for Golf Canada until next summer.

"There are a number of project-type things that I am going to see through," he says. "I'll be doing some work on a limited basis, one or two days a week, basically through the end of next summer, and then pass it off after that.

"There are some things we wanted to get finished off, which is nice, because I can stay involved and play some golf as well."

(Three Canadian Golf Hall of Fame members, Dick Zokol, Dave Barr, Doug Roxburgh)

During his time with Golf Canada (formerly the RCGA) Roxburgh oversaw the development of a high-performance program for top Canadian amateur players. He says he'll miss all the time he spent working with young players.

"There has been a lot of them," he says. "I can remember Richard Lee and Eugene Wong and James Lepp and Richard Scott, these guys were just 13 and 14 years old. Some of them are doing all right, some of them have gone on to other things. I remember one kid who had all kinds of talent when he 13 or 14 and he's now an investment banker in New York City. It has been great to work with all these young kids."

Roxburgh hopes he has helped lay the groundwork for a system that will continue to develop young players. He thinks it is important that new funding be found to help young Canadian professionals, who now are more or less cut loose once they turn pro.

With golf rejoining the Olympics in 2016, Roxburgh hopes golf might benefit from the successful 'Own the Podium' campaign in the years leading up to the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.