Randy Long, Golf Course Superintendent at Thornblade in upstate South Carolina, has been using fans to cool his greens since he arrived on the job 18 years ago.

"We went out and bought a few shop fans and placed them around the greens and immediately saw a difference in our greens," says Long. "Over the years, we began purchasing some small 30 inch turf fans, typically running them 24/7 beginning in early to mid-May."

Introduced to TurfBreeze fans by founder Tom Michaels, and in 2007 Long purchased his first TurfBreeze fan – the 50 inch, 7.5 HP, "Since the 7.5 HP motor uses more electricity than our much smaller fans, we decided to try running the 50 inch fan for only 12-13 hours per day. We hooked the fan’s control package into our existing irrigation system, operating it through the PC in our office," explains Long.

"We had incredible results," praised Long. "Our worst green became our best green."

With the success seen in summer 2007 using one 50 inch TurfBreeze fan, Long purchased three additional TurfBreeze 50 inch fans for summer 2008 and has plans to purchase more in 2009.

"We have also set these fans to run 13 hours per day. They come on at 5 a.m. and go off at 6 p.m. I can’t see continuing to pay for electricity to run the fan 24 hours per day when 12-13 hours works as well as it has."