9 hole course handicap

Sorry new to the golf game, can I gain a handicap from playing a 9 hole course? or does it have to be 18? I will be entering my details on here as I am not a member of any club yet

Thank you in advance

I'm not sure if I'm correct with this or not but...... 

You might be able to get a handicap if your local nine hole course has two seperate tee boxes for each hole.

As long as the course has a SSS for eighteen holes you should be OK.

Russ

Christopher is correct about the 9 hole handicap and approval from the EGU

I did think that as long as the course you were playing had a SSS then you could use it for handicap purposes.

Russ

I am interested in this topic as I play 9 holes at my local club on a regular basis and 18 holes rarely.  I have recently been scoring 43 (par 36) for 9 holes and currently have a handicap of 23.  However, I often find when I do play 18 holes I post a score around 105 which is way over my 23 handicap.  I recently played my first competition and did exactly this so did not stand a chance of winning.  How can I address this?  I know my local club very well so maybe my score is low as I know the lie of the land so to speak and my real handicap should be 28.  Should I tick the box on the handicap tool so that my regular 9 holes are not counted as part of my handicap??

Simon, You say you normally get 43 on the first 9 but if you play another 9 you may score 62 on the 2nd 9. Is this correct as it seems strange. 23 Hcp for a 43 on a par 36 looks OK but why are you not shooting 43 on the 2nd 9. On your 105 have you got a couple of 10s 11s or 12s thrown in? these will be converted to net double bogies (lowest no of shots where you do not score a stablford point ) for Hcp purposes.

Hope this clears things up a bit.

Dave CAC handed Geordie.

Thanks Dave. 

I don't normally play 18 holes on the course where I play 9 holes - I have only done so twice and scored low 90's as the back nine play easier than the front 9 (BTW it is a 9 hole course with 18 different tees).

I looked at the handicap tool /my rounds after posting and it looks like my handicap does not change when I only play 9 holes.  Maybe someone could confirm?  If so I guess I'll just use my 9 hole rounds as practice.