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' (both can mean one's father).
'at' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'the end of the' says to take the final letters.
The last 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)" .)