long games

Noun

long game (plural long games)

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

   Synonyms:

   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.2013 September 8, “What we saw: Seahawks 12, at Panthers 7”, in Seattle Post-Intelligencer, retrieved 11 Jul 2014
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.”2010 July 18, Christopher Clarey, “Another Second for Golf’s Latest Near-Miss Man”, in New York Times, retrieved 11 Jul 2014