I have read topics about players determining a round as practice at the beginning of a round. For instance, if there are temporary greens or if the greens have been aerated, they will call the round a practice round. Is this within the rules. If your intent at the beginning of the round is to hit multiple balls and that sort of thing, is it correct not to post that score?

By my understanding, if you declare a practice round before beginning, the score isn't supposed to be used to determine handicap. Nor is it supposed to be used if you're not playing within the rules of golf (multiple balls).

But I'm no rules expert, so don't take my word as 100% correct.

Definitely you do not have to post a practice round and certainly must not if you are not playing to rules of golf.

I do this quite frequently, go and play around by myself, hit multiple balls, just to work on some things, There's only so much you can adjust on the range. I like to use course conditions to help my game (Rough, Uneven lies, etc). As long as you are not just playing a normal round, shooting a terrible score, then saying when you are done, oh well that was just practice.