I have been playing the game for 20 years. My father was a semi-pro tournament player and I picked up a lot from watching him. I quickly became a "natural" (I really don't like that term, I just had a good base line to start learning from).
For years I just went out and played and did fairly good. Better than average. This year I decided to really focus on practicing so I can get to scratch and the gains I've seen in the last two months are huge. This year I have gone from hitting a 5 iron about 170 yards to 200+, consistently.
Starting to learn the game from the hole backwards is a great idea. When my game dropped off for a few years I stopped hitting anything longer than a 5 iron.
I hope he succeeds. I haven't read a real passion for the game in the posts I've read, though. Does he love it? I believe talent = passion + time spent.
What I would love to understand is where exactly he was mentally prior to starting this challenge. Is he naturally a person who strives to grow even when tasks become automatic, or has the change of mindset been part of his training, and if so how did he make the mindshift change.
Yes, he's very deliberate about it. IIRC, he has a top coach guiding all of his training, and the plan has been careful working away from the hole. So the first couple hundred hours (!) were all putting and then some chipping, doing careful drill after drill. Finally he can play most of the hole, albeit with only shorter distance clubs so far.