You make the call!

As stated in the poll question, I didn't take any more liberties after the first 9. Lemme know what you think.

You're not being completely clear.  Did you continue to play your first shot no matter how bad it was while also hitting some additional practice balls or were you picking other shots you hit?

Personally I think you should never hit extra balls if you're playing with other people, I can't stand it, but if you're own and messing around it's completely fine.  As far as the score goes, if you're playing your initial ball then there's nothing wrong IMO with saying you shot a certain score, but you couldn't post the score as an official handicap indicator.

I would say you just scrap the 18 and use it as a practice round.  I think we've all been there before

None of the above.  You played 3 holes (7,8,and 9) that were not in accordance with the rules of golf.  By rule, for handicap posting, you post par plus any handicap strokes you would be entitled to for those 3 holes. The remaining 15 holes are posted as usual....

4-2. Holes Not Played or Not Played Under The Principles of The Rules of Golf

If a player does not play a hole or plays it other than under the principles of the Rules of Golf (except for preferred lies ), the score recorded for that hole for handicap purposes must be par plus any handicap strokes the player is entitled to receive on that hole. This hole score, when recorded, should be preceded by an "X."

Example: A player with a Course Handicap of 10 receives a handicap stroke on the first 10 allocated handicap-stroke holes. If the player does not play the sixth allocated handicap-stroke hole, which is a par 4, because of construction on the green, the player must record a score of par plus one for handicap purposes, or X-5. (See Decision 4-2/1 and Section 5-2b .)

Score par plus any handicap strokes allowed for the 3 holes you practiced on, then post the 18 hole adjusted score for handicap.  You are allowed up to 5 unfinished or unplayed holes.  David posted the correct process from the manual.

I didn't vote because I have the same question as Nutter.

David and Rick are right about the USGA posting procedure.

Once you hit another ball you forfeited the hole. It doesn't matter if you continue to play your original ball.

We realize this, but if you're going to put the "take a two stroke penalty on the holes you practiced on" option up there, then it only makes sense that we need to understand where exactly you're getting the original score from.

The only original score would be "be par plus any handicap strokes the player is entitled to receive on that hole" for those holes.

+1.   Confess other golf scoring and rule related sins before its too late.   Amen.

What kind of practice shots? Around the greens and tees after finishing holes?

No during. A few approach shots, chips, rechips...pretty much a practice 9 holes.

Hell is too harsh. Maybe purgatory though... it's a place where there's still golf, but all the tee boxes are slightly uneven, the greens are always aerated, and the bunkers are all hard pan.

Because he says he only practiced on 3 holes, meaning he played a legitimate 18 hole round as far as handicap is concerned.  You can't just pick 9 holes from a full round and decide to only post that.

I don't understand that either other than a personal ethics or standard. I started out rough and personally declared the first 9 hole portion the round as a practice round and determined to iron out swing issues I had developed in a round prior. I picked up on the 3rd hole, 5th and 6th. I hit practice shots on the 6th, 8th and 9th. Knowing I was not going to count the round I took risks in trees I normally wouldn't take as well. I am not sure if I have to "declare before the 1st tee shot" or what the protocol is. Since it was a leisure round I decided that I would put out the effort after the first nine to legitimately keep score without any more practice shots.

I didn't feel like working on this at the range so I used the first 9 to practice. I knew I had some swing work to do but was was hoping though not completely sure it would have remedied itself. I saw the writing on the wall and decided to focus on fixing my swing. I shot an approximate 52 and 40 respectively.