Apparently, nobody except @MatthewFreitag understood the nuances: openings can be worth learning by beginners, but they are certainly not the most important thing to learn (who said this?!), and learning an opening at a low-level doesn't mean memorizing the 15 first moves: it means understanding the ideas beyond the very first moves (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6. A beginner who doesn't understand why would white play 3.Bb5 should learn this before adding the Ruy Lopez to his repertoire: the pressure on e5 is the key idea of this opening (I'm not saying it's the only idea)).
This.