Soldier taking standard advanced (4)
I believe the answer is:
para
'soldier' is the definition.
(short for paratrouper)
'standard advanced' is the wordplay.
'standard' becomes 'par' (standard of play in golf).
'advanced' becomes 'a'.
'par'+'a'='PARA'
'taking' is the link.
(Other definitions for para that I've seen before include "Soldier (shortened)" , "Soldier who's dropped in? (abbr)" , "abbreviated passage having unity" , "Soldier who jumps to order? (abbr)" , "A block of text; an airborne soldier (abbrs.)" .)