What the heck is a ganch?

[Pancho]

Watching a video showing every hole at Whistling Straits and at 9:36 he describes a hazard area you want to overfly as a "ganch." Googling doesn't find the word under that or any of the other spellings I tried. See if you can figure out what he is saying: https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/golf/e ... d=msedgntp

[migolfer]

I thought it might be spelled "gaunch", but there aren't any suitable definitions for that word online.

It might be spelled "gunch". See the reference to that word in this article about Prairie Dunes:
https://walkertrolleys.com/blogs/course ... irie-dunes

And the contrast between the green grass and the browning ‘gunch’ as they call the native prairie grasses is just a beautiful site to behold.

It is defined in the Urban Dictionary as:

Gunch
The nasty, swamp-like area on a golf course that smells terrible.

Roger: "Aww, man. I just put my ball in the gunch."
Ken: "Chalk that ball up as a goner. Nobody goes into the gunch."

by don't suck July 25, 2010

Pay no attention to the other definitions of that term

[migolfer]

Okay, I went right to the source on this one -- the guy who made that video! He would know, teehee.

From: Derek Duncan <..email snipped..>
Sent: Sunday, September 19, 2021 4:31 PM
To: <..me..>
Subject: Explanation of Word Used in "Every Hole" Video

Hello Dave,

I'm not sure "gaunch" is a real word, but it's a term I've heard used--and used myself--on the golf course to refer to an unkempt, gnarly area that you want to avoid. When writing scripts like these, words like "bunkers" and "rough" and "fescue" tend to come up over and over again, so we look for different ways to say the same thing.

If players are going to go for the green in two on the 16th at Whistling Straits, they're going to have to carry the ball some distance across an area of depressed bunkers and fescue--the gaunch.

Derek