Friend wearing gold ring initially like a non-professional? (7)
I believe the answer is:
amateur
'a non-professional?' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'friend wearing gold ring initially' is the wordplay.
'friend' becomes 'mate' (mate is a kind of friend).
'wearing' is an insertion indicator.
'gold' becomes 'Au' (Au is the chemical symbol for gold).
'initially' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'ring' is 'r'.
'mate' inserted inside 'au' is 'amateu'.
'amateu'+'r'='AMATEUR'
'like' is the link.
(Other definitions for amateur that I've seen before include "Unpaid (sportsman}" , "Layperson" , "Of sportsman, not professional" , "11 [UNTRAINED]" , "incompetent" .)