Come up to scratch

Answer 1

This is an English expression which means to achieve the required standard There are several proposed origins of this idiom. There is the inspection mark that a master would scratch or stamp into a workpiece meanng, if the piece was of sufficient quality, it had come up to scratch. However, predating that explanation is the golfing handicap term. A player who has no handicap is a scratch golfer. A player of lesser quality, who uses the handicap system to be under par if you will, has (does) not come up to scratch.