Spoke of career before golf (4)
I believe the answer is:
rung
'spoke' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'career before golf' is the wordplay.
'career' becomes 'run' (career can mean to run or move out of control).
'before' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'golf' becomes 'g' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'run'+'g'='RUNG'
'of' is the link.
(Other definitions for rung that I've seen before include "Telephoned" , "Step up the ladder - called for" , "Ladder's step" , "spoke" , "Level in a hierarchy" .)