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Jordan Spieth is in contention after a 66 on Friday at Colonial. USATSI

Thunderstorms in the morning pushed tee times back by more than five hours on Friday at the Dean & DeLuca Invitational at Colonial Country Club, but that delay did not have an adverse effect on Jordan Spieth.

After posting a 3-under 67 on Thursday, Spieth backed it up with another strong round on Friday with a 4-under 66 to move to 7 under for the tournament. Starting on the back nine at Colonial, Spieth went out in 35, but came in on the front nine with a bogey-free 31 to make his move up the leaderboard.

Spieth was dialed in with his irons on the front nine, with the best example coming on the 221-yard, par-3 4th hole when he stuck a 5-iron to six feet leaving an easy birdie putt. He followed that up by getting the putter going with a lengthy birdie roll on No. 5 to move to 7 under.

With tee times being pushed back, the second round will continue on Saturday morning, but Spieth's play in the first two rounds has put him in position to contend for the second straight weekend. Spieth struggled on Sunday at the Byron Nelson and despite quality scoring early in the event, never felt that good about his game.

This week is different. After his first round 67, Spieth told reporters that he felt better about his play on Thursday than he did after a 6 under round a week ago.

"I mean, this round I played much better than the 6-under first round last week," said Spieth. "That was a very, very difficult golf course this afternoon."

On Friday, he continued that solid play and took advantage on his second nine of better scoring conditions as the wind sat down a bit and the greens were softened up by the inch and a half of rain they got in the morning.

Spieth hasn't been able to put together a strong weekend performance to get past his Sunday meltdown at the Masters. He had the chance last week in the final pairing on Sunday, but his two-way miss he's been fighting could only be masked by incredible putting for so long.

This weekend, he'll have another chance to bury those Augusta demons as he'll be firmly in contention when the third round starts.