Bloomington, Minnesota, United States: Toro is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Lynx Central Control System with new enhancements, including more visualisation options, rate management tools and cloud-based features.

“With a decade of proven success behind it, Lynx is far and away the most popular irrigation management tool,” said Paul Standerfer, Product Manager for Golf Central Controls at Toro, an Executive Member of the Asian Golf Industry Federation.

“But we know the best can always be better, so we’re constantly in discussions with golf course superintendents to see what improvements will serve them best. These new enhancements reflect their input,” added Standerfer.

A favourite element of Lynx is the mapping and visualisation capability. The new version allows superintendents to have a map view of their Precip Management Group and the projected amount of irrigation.

The map view allows them to see which sprinklers are set to operate simultaneously, so they can easily determine whether to operate adjacent sprinklers.

Combined with the projected irrigation amounts, they can quickly use these visuals to determine if the water will be applied at the ideal rate so that the ground can absorb it without run-off.

The Lynx update has also enhanced the cloud-based functions. “Superintendents made it clear that they don’t want to be tied to their desks,” Standerfer said. “The cloud-based features in Lynx not only add convenience, but they also add mobility. In fact, we’re changing the name of the app from Lynx Mobile to Lynx Mobile Cloud to reflect these updates.”

The Lynx Mobile Cloud update includes user-selected mapping and touch features that give superintendents superior control from any location. If they’re on the course and see a change that needs to be addressed, they can immediately make the change rather than wait until returning to the office. It also gives them more flexibility to react to emergencies and unexpected weather developments from anywhere at any time.

Convenience and security combine in the upgraded File Manager. Standerfer said: “Superintendents spend a lot of time on precision settings, and the last thing they want is to duplicate that work. In the past, they could back up the settings in the event of a computer crash or power outage, but it wasn’t something that was top of mind with everything else they have to do. The upgrade makes backups automatic.”

The automated back-up scheduler lets superintendents schedule a back-up time once and then forget about it. A local back-up will occur automatically each day.