long game

noun long games

1. A long-term strategy or endeavor. Near-synonym: long haul

   Similar: long haul

2. The version of the game played until one team makes ten points, as opposed to the short game, which is played to five points. Chamber's Encyclopedia: “About 1785 the experiment of dividing the game into half was tried, and short whist was the result. The short game soon came into favour; and in 1864 the supremacy of short whist was acknowledged.”
3. The aspect of the game in which the strategy is to advance downfield by throwing the ball to a receiving player; the passing game. [T]he Seahawks held Newton to 119 passing yards, as the Panthers kept mainly to the ground and Seattle's secondary shut down the long game.
4. The portion of the game, played with driver clubs, in which the ball is advanced down the fairway to the putting green. “[E]verybody thinks when the wind blows it affects the long game the most, but it doesn’t,” Westwood said. “It tends to affect the putting most.”