Joe Tew chips a shot onto the 11th green last year during the finals of the Bill Davis Northwood Invitational at Northwood Country Club.

It’s still the Northwood Invitational, but this year’s annual tournament at Northwood Country Club will have a slightly different feel to it.

The Bill Davis Northwood Invitational, which takes place Friday-Sunday, is the country club’s longest-running tournament, and golfers are used to it being a four-day event with four-ball stroke play on Day 1 followed by three rounds of four-ball bracket play. Since the tournament is usually played around the Fourth of July, though, Northwood golf pro Billy Pomeroy had to improvise this year, since the Fourth fell during the middle of the week.

“Instead of it being an extended weekend, it’s a one-day holiday, so we had to adjust the format because of that,” Pomeroy said. “Everyone loves four-ball match play, so we were trying to keep the four-ball tournament but do it in three days.”

The Fourth falling on a Wednesday wasn’t the only reason for the change. Pomeroy said a four-day tournament isn’t as realistic anymore, since it’s not always easy for people to take four days off of work. Thus, instead of brackets, the tournament will use a round robin format Saturday and Sunday following four-ball stroke play in Friday’s qualifying round. Golfers will be seeded into six flights and will play five nine-hole matches, with every hole worth a point. Each team will play every other team in its flight, with the highest point total in the end being the winner of their respective flight. Following that, each flight winner will take part in a shootout.

“This is a popular format that’s done all over the country, but it’s new to Northwood and the Meridian area,” Pomeroy said. “I think everyone is really going to like it. We’ve had a lot of positive feedback for trying to get creative and do this format and keep the four-ball match play. Everyone likes four-ball. It’s different — you’re playing the course but also playing the opponent, which makes it fun.”

Even if the format is a hit, though, Pomeroy said he can’t commit to using it every year going forward.

“We’ll have to see,” he said. “This is Northwood’s oldest tournament, and people weren’t really complaining about the old format other than maybe it was a little long. Four days today is a little different than four days 20 years ago.”

The tournament is named after former Northwood golf pro Bill Davis, who Pomeroy called a revered golf professional.

“He was here in the ’50s through the ’70s, and if you look at the core group of golfers in Meridian, a lot of it is because of Bill Davis,” Pomeroy said. “He started it, and the effects of his work are still seen today.”

Slots are still open for the tournament, which costs $200 per person and includes the Friday night dinner, golf, prizes and tees. The perfect number of golfers would be divisible by six, Pomeroy said, but he’s willing to take as many as he can get.