LAS VEGAS, Nevada – The SOX Erosion Solutions installation that PTI Golf completed last year at Blackstone Country Club in Peoria, AZ was typical of their previous installations with one major exception. This time the PTI crew had an audience.
Word is starting to spread about SOX Erosion Solutions, a high-tech, less evasive system to counter lake erosion. Based in Florida and active in the southeast for two decades, SOX recently expanded to the southwest by partnering with PTI Golf, a golf construction, landscaping and maintenance company serving the southwestern United States for over 30 years.
Superintendents and course owners in the southwest are growing more curious about the system, so the local chapter of the Arizona Golf Course Superintendents Association – Cactus & Pine – decided to gather on site to watch the installation. About 80 people attended to see first-hand the advantages of the SOX system.
“Blackstone Country Club’s superintendent Andrew Hitchcock and the Cactus & Pine hosted a really great agronomy meeting on the driving range, then brought over the members in carts to watch the SOX installation,” said PTI’s Sam Wolfe, who headed up the project. “We did a presentation as they watched the installation process and reviewed the different stages of the project followed by an informative Q&A. It was an educational and productive day.”
Hitchcock, who serves as Vice President for the Cactus & Pine chapter, agreed with Wolfe.
“I think the onsite demo was really helpful for showing exactly what Sox is and how the installation process goes,” he said. “ SOX is a much less invasive process to restore a lakehead versus a concrete wall or boulders or regrading. That day we showed the phases of the Sox installation. Some areas were already sodded, some areas were filled in front of the group, and some were staked up so they could see every step of the process.”
The PTI crew installed over 1,100 linear feet on the irrigation lake bordering the fourth hole during the eight-day process. While Blackstone officials chose to close the hole during the installation, it wasn’t totally necessary. That’s one of the many advantages of the SOX product.
“SOX leaves a very small footprint,” said Wolfe. “Otherwise you have to drain the lake and bring in large equipment. SOX allows the course to stay open during installation, protecting revenue generated by play.”
Here’s how it works:
First the crew does an analysis of the area, and then develops a restoration plan. Anchor stakes are positioned and staggered during layout. The bottom portion of the Sox is secured with rope, and then the top is rolled over like a taco and filled with organic material that will help wick in moisture from the water in the lake. The wicking of water eliminates the need for sprinkler heads along the lake edge. The ends of the material are sewn shut. The top is then staked off and the material is covered with sod, vegetation and/or plants, providing immediate stabilization.
After it all settles in, what’s left is a beautiful lake bank with protection against erosion.
“The final SOX product is aesthetically beautiful, but it is also a very powerful defender against future erosion,” said Nate Watkin of SOX Erosion Solutions. “There is not another method available that captures all of that. It’s a pretty significant departure from traditional methods, which usually involves some type of hard material like concrete, and a bladder system. It’s not stable and it’s not a great fit with Mother Nature.
“Our system is about mitigation; about defending the bank from future erosion. This is a long-term solution, creating an active, living, breathing shoreline.”
Hitchcock and Blackstone are very pleased with PTI’s work on the project.
“Sometimes contactors can get away from you a bit. You hire them and they say, ‘this is how we do it.’ But it isn’t that way with PTI,” said Hitchcock. “They worked like an addition to our agronomy team and hit the Blackstone standards. They were easy to work with, they were reasonable with timeline and price point, and the quality of the work was as good as I could have enforced with my team.”
Watkin of SOX, who was involved in the Blackstone project, was also pleased with PTI’s work and is excited about the future of the relationship.
“Overall the partnership with PTI has been very good from a support standpoint,” he said. “They are one of our preferred partners in the southwest, and it has been a very strong partnership to start off.”