CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Bo Van Pelt hardly would call himself a fashion plate.

"I'm pretty much a khaki and white shirt guy, pretty bland," he said.

Yet that hardly describes his attire Friday at the Wachovia Championship. He stuck with the white shirt, but completed the ensemble with — gasp! — BRIGHT ORANGE PANTS.

"I guess I felt the heat," Van Pelt said. "I put on these orange pants, and I felt like I really better play good or I was going to get made fun of. Maybe I ought to wear them more often."

Something worked, that's for sure.

Van Pelt set the 36-hole record at the Wachovia Championship, tying the course mark with a 64 Friday for a 10-under total of 134 at Quail Hollow. It was good for a three-shot lead over former U.S. Open champ Jim Furyk, with Davis Love III another stroke back.

Play was suspended for about 90 minutes during the afternoon due to thundershowers, then called off for good about 30 minutes after it resumed when more bad weather moved through. Seventy-four players were to come back Saturday morning to complete their rounds.

Van Pelt matched the 64 shot by Kirk Triplett in the first round of the inaugural event in 2003.

"I was concentrating when I was out there, but it's always fun when you feel like you've got control over your golf ball," said Van Pelt, still looking for his first career victory. "You know, you feel like you can work it the way you want to work it. They rhythm with my putter felt really good, so that always helps."

He finished off his round in style, narrowly missing a birdie at the difficult par-4 16th before making one of only nine on the 17th, a devilish par 3 that plays at 217 yards to a peninsula green. With the pin only four paces in from the left — and about five paces from the water — Van Pelt hit a 5-iron within 6 feet.

He added a sand save on the finishing hole to complete his round.

"It's not the end all, be all, but obviously I want to win," Van Pelt said. "It would mean a lot."

To do so, he needs to hold off a stellar field that includes eight of the 10 players in the world. Tiger Woods is missing, having already decided to skip the tournament for the first time in three years to be with his father, Earl, who died of cancer earlier in the week.

Furyk, who shared the first round lead with three other players, got to 9 under before some problems late, with bogeys at 16 and 17 spoiling his day a bit. He finished with a 69.

"Yeah, I'm disappointed," Furyk said. "I felt like in my mind I should have played those holes better. If those bogeys come at 4 and 13, you know, none of us would think twice about it. They just happened to come at 16 and 17."

Defending champ Vijay Singh was five shots behind after a 68 to leave him at 5-under 139, tied for the moment with rookie Bill Haas, who had completed only eight holes before the round was suspended. Trevor Immelman, Stuart Appleby and Vaughn Taylor all were another stroke back and still on the course, too.

"The golf course is a driving golf course, so you drive the ball and you can give yourself chances at birdies, like I did," said Singh, who beat Furyk and Sergio Garcia in a playoff last year. "No matter which way you do it, you've got to put the ball in the fairway."

Love didn't do that very well — he found the short grass on only six of the 14 driving holes — but he got away with it.