CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Bo Van Pelt, a self-described “khaki and white shirt guy,” decided to try something different at the Wachovia Championship this week after his clothing company sent him a selection of new pants.

“I told my wife, I think I’m going to take all these crazy colored pants to Charlotte and see what happens,” Van Pelt said. “Maybe I ought to wear them more often.”

Van Pelt chose a bright orange pair of trousers for Friday’s second round. “I felt like I really better play good or I was going to get made fun of,” he joked.

There was no need to worry about any good-natured ribbing, though, as Van Pelt’s game stood out more than his pants.

His second-round 64 tied Kirk Triplett’s course record at Quail Hollow Country Club and placed Van Pelt at the top of the leaderboard at 10-under par. He established a new 36-hole tournament record in the process.

Leaderboards and records were far from Van Pelt’s mind, though, on Friday. “I just wanted to challenge myself to see how low I could shoot,” he said. “That’s what I kept reminding myself all day, was to try to birdie every hole coming in.”

And that he did, playing especially well on the Wachovia’s challenging back nine. With birdies on the 10th, 14th and 15th holes, Van Pelt overtook Jim Furyk for the lead. On the 17th, a par 3 nearly surrounded by water, Van Pelt hit a 5-iron to within 6 feet of the hole and tapped it in for his final birdie of the day.

After growing up playing a tree-lined Forest Hills golf course in Richmond, Ind., Van Pelt said he felt comfortable on the similarly-styled Quail Hollow course.

“You know, I grew up on kind of an old style course, had a lot of doglegs with real fast greens that had a lot of break in them,” he said. “I don’t mind shaping it, or if I get behind a tree, it doesn’t bother me to hit a hook or a cut or hit it low, so I don’t mind going to courses like this.”

Van Pelt said he had been driving the ball well lately and, though his irons “weren’t great yesterday”, he overcame that by playing smart golf.

“I wasn’t pressing the course because this is a course I think if you get to pressing, it’ll bite you in the you-know-where,” Van Pelt said. “You’ve just got to try to keep it in front of you, and that’s what I did.”

His best finish so far this year was a tie for eighth at THE PLAYERS Championship. Van Pelt has come a long way since his rookie season on the PGA TOUR in 1999. Getting adjusted that first season to his new life on TOUR was a challenge for Van Pelt, an Oklahoma State product who did not play a lot of amateur or junior golf.

“It took me a while. I wasn’t ready at all,” said Van Pelt, who only played for two years in college. “I got through Q-school right away. I was only 22 or something, and I had no chance. I couldn’t keep it on the planet, and my short game wasn’t good enough.

“But it was good for me because I got to learn for a year what it took to be out here. I got my head beat in, but I saw guys that were really good, and I said, okay, if you are not as good as them, you’re not going to make it. So I had to go back to (the) Nationwide (Tour) and work on my game.”

Bo Van Pelt is seeking his first PGA TOUR title. (Greenwood/WireImage)

Van Pelt qualified for the PGA TOUR a third time in 2003 with a fifth-place finish on the Nationwide Tour money list, and he’s made steady progress. In 2005, Van Pelt had six top-10 finishes and was 24th on the TOUR money list. For the current year, he is 48th in earnings with $630,426 to his credit.

Unlike his first stint on the PGA TOUR, Van Pelt now feels that he can really play with the top golfers. At the Memorial Tournament last year, which the 30-year-old said he went to every year as a child, he tied for third with Tiger Woods and Jeff Sluman.

“I played with Tiger last year on Sunday, and we both had a chance to win and we both finished tied for third,” Van Pelt said about the Memorial. “I felt like I was there stride for stride.

“Obviously I haven’t accomplished anything like those guys have, but that’s the great part about golf. All those guys had to win their first one, too. Like I said, I’m just going to keep giving myself chances, and I figure one of these Sundays will be my day.”

Whether his first PGA TOUR victory comes Sunday at the Wachovia Championship remains to be seen, but Van Pelt has an important decision to make as he looks in his closet. He has “kind of a yellow and…kind of a khaki left.”

He hasn’t chosen the ones for tomorrow yet, but if his bright-orange pants helped inspire his brilliant performance on an otherwise dreary, rain-soaked day, perhaps yellow will be his color of choice