If you're one of three million golfers in the United States who keep a golf handicap, there's a good chance you've heard of GHIN.
GHIN stands for the Golf Handicap Information Network, and it's what the United States Golf Association offers to golfers to track their golf scores and derive a handicap index. GHIN gathers golfer data from all over the country (and international rounds, too), and the app helps golfers know the handicaps of their playing partners and figure out how to appropriately match up.
It's a great app, but lots of golfers don't know how to pronounce the acronym GHIN. Some people think it sounds like the liquor gin, with the GH in GHIN sounding like a j. Some people think it sounds like a hard g instead. I've even heard it pronounced like the name Jen, short for Jennifer.
However, the USGA has settled the debate on how GHIN is meant to be pronounced thanks to commercials promoting the app and the platform as a way for golfers to track their progress and compete against other golfers.
The answer is: GHIN is pronounced like gin.
These kinds of esoteric debates and questions among golfers may seem kind of ridiculous to people outside the sport. And they're probably right. But when it comes to speaking the same language in golf, knowing how to say GHIN properly is important so as to not sound foolish to a fellow handicap index-having golfer.
