I was just confused and surprised when micronesia said he didn't have any handicap yet plays on courses that I assumed required you to have a hcp, IE be a registered player. This is how it works in Europe anyway..
Interesting, as that is defintiely not how it usually works stateside. You cna pretty much play anywhere as long as it is a private club, so you don't have to register with a governing body or anything unless you want to play tournaments, or just have a handicap. If you register with your local club you will recieve a handicap, though it defaults at being non existant and only starts to be generated after 5 rounds.