Standard reached by dad at the end of the year (3)
I believe the answer is:
par
'standard' is the definition.
(standard of play in golf)
'dad at the end of the year' is the wordplay.
'dad' becomes 'pa' (synonyms).
'at the end of' says to take the final letters.
The final letter of 'year' is 'r'.
'pa'+'r'='PAR'
'reached by' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for par that I've seen before include "Average standard" , "Rap to get even" , "Standard score for golfers" , "Average - equality" , "Expected number of strokes for hole (golf)" .)