Golf Canada formerly the Royal Canadian Golf Association is the governing body for establishing and maintaining a handicap system for all golf clubs in Canada in co-operation with the provincial golf associations.
One of the purposes of the handicap system is to determine your Handicap Factor or skill level of play.  Most all amateur golf tournaments request proof of a certain Factor as a requirement to be eligible to the event.
It is therefore very important to enter all 9 and 18 hole scores into the Golf Canada Handicap System.  You can do so in the Pro Shop or online.

The Handicap System also helps make the game of golf more enjoyable for golfers by providing a means of measuring one’s performance and progress and to enable golfers of differing abilities to compete on an equitable basis. Through this system, each golfer establishes a Handicap Factor which is a numerical measurement of a player’s potential (not actual) scoring ability on a course of standard difficulty. The Handicap Factor is calculated using the best 10 of the player’s last 20 rounds and updated with each new round played. The Handicap Factor travels with the golfer from course to course and is adjusted up or down depending on the length and difficulty of the course played, resulting in a “Course Handicap”. The Course Handicap is the number of strokes a golfer receives from a specific set of tees at the course played and represents the number of strokes he would require to play equally against a “scratch” golfer (a golfer with a Handicap Factor of “0.0′).