long game

Noun

• A long-term strategy or endeavor.
• (whist) It turns out that the long game and the short game are variants of whist. Chamber’s Encyclopedia explains: “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.”
• The aspect of the game in which the strategy is to advance downfield by throwing the ball to a receiving player; the passing game.
• The portion of the game, played with driver clubs, in which the ball is advanced down the fairway to the putting green.