FORT WORTH, Texas — Bryce Molder would have a magical number if he could combine his front-nine scores through two days at Colonial into one round.

Bolstered by 11 combined birdies on Nos. 1-9 at Hogan’s Alley, Molder had a one-stroke lead with three holes to play Friday in the Dean & Deluca Invitational when second-round play was suspended because of darkness.

“It was kind of tale of two nines even though I didn’t finish the second nine,” Molder said. “The first nine was really clean. ... Everything was going right.”

At 9 under, Molder was a stroke ahead of Webb Simpson and two in front of second-ranked Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed. Simpson and Spieth completed their rounds.

Molder was the first-round leader after an opening 64 with six birdies on the front nine. He had five more birdies on that side Friday, which would translate to a 59 — that is the best score ever shot on the PGA Tour.

“You know, I thought about that when I was on No. 6 today,” Molder said. “That was fun. I mean, I wish I could have just turned back around, teed off on No. 1 and just kept going because that side has been really good to me.”

Play was stopped at 8:21 p.m. with 61 of the 121 players still on the course. They will return to complete the second round Saturday morning, scheduled to resume just more than 11 hours after stopping. The third round will be played after the cut is made.

Simpson was 8 under after a 67.

Spieth shot a 66 with four birdies in five holes after turning to the front nine.

Reed had 10 holes left. He has a PGA Tour-high eight top-10 finishes this season.

Molder’s only slip-up was a double bogey at the 441-yard 12th, when he hit his first two shots into the rough and three-putted from 27 feet not long before play was stopped Friday.

There were consecutive birdies after starting at No. 1 on Friday, and Molder hit his approach from 188 yards at the difficult fifth hole to 2 feet for another birdie. He chipped in from the front bunker at the par-3 eighth.

Spieth goes into the weekend in contention at home for the second week in a row, and at Colonial for the second year in a row.