I hold gold in my hand and i hold stocks (shares which essentially is part ownership of a company) that hold gold in JORC reserves and deposits in the ground i.e. gold miners.
I also hold a sheet load of cash which i play hedge with to accumulate more gold and gold miners!
Gold ETF's are for short traders when push comes to shove there physically is not enough physicals to full fill orders. Sure Gold ETF's are great for short term trading but unless you put any of those profits towards the real stuff what on earth are you trading or even hedging for in that regards? A Why bother should suffice.