Being a relative novice myself I could not hope to offer as good as advice as you have above re the general game play, but I have been through the joys/agonies/frustrations of the early stages of the game perhaps more recently. With that in mind may I offer the following for your consideration.
1). Set yourself realistic targets. If you are trying to shoot under par on every course you play it just won't happen, unless you are very, very good indeed. I started by aiming to break bogey on every hole I played ie beat 18 over. When I could do that I aimed for breaking nine over, then five over and so on and so forth. I now average probably one or two over and shoot a few sub par rounds.
2). Try to play as many ranked rounds as possible.These are the ones that count towards your average and score XPs which advance your Levels. The higher the Level the better equipment available to you.
3). Never give up on a round at this stage no matter how badly it's going. As mentioned above every shot you take gains you XPs to advance your Level. Don't worry that' it'll ruin your average as this is calculated only from your best rounds. The number of rounds averaged out varies at each Tier (Hack/Amateur/Pro etc) ie very few in the early Tiers.My current quoted average is 69.6 but as mentioned above I don't shoot in the sixties very often. And still hit the odd 80.
4). Play every day. Even if it's only a CCTH - nine shots in total - you'll get a consecutive days play bonus which reaches 880XPs every day after five days play if memory serves. I usually hit a CCTH whilst having my morning coffee without even bothering to aim to get this bonus just in case I don't have time later.
5). For now play the percentages. A lot of the pins are positioned close to a bunker or the rough. With the starter clubs it's hugely unlikely you'll be able to clear these hazards and still hold the green. Leading to double bogies or worse as you try and escape from the trap. Better to aim for the middle of the green where a great putt will get you birdie, a good one close enough to hole out for par and even a bad one probably no worse than bogie.
6). Putting pace. I think the best piece of advice I was given early on was to learn how to read the pace of putts. Get this right and you'll rarely end up more than five feet away now matter how badly you read the break.
OK enough from your fellow novice, back to those who really know what they're talking about.
All the best, Fekdrink.