Casey jumped 28 spots to take the lead at six under, alongside American Austin Cook.
Englishman Casey used an eagle on the par-five fifth hole and four birdies to card a round of five-under 66. Cook powered his way to first place behind five birdies.
But it is a congested leaderboard, with world number one Dustin Johnson just two strokes off the pace.
Johnson finished the day with one of the more colourful scorecards. He opened his day with a double bogey and bogey on his front nine, but closed out his round with five birdies and a bogey on the back to finish with a two-under 69.
Johnson sits in a three-way tie for sixth at four under with Curtis Luck and round-one leader Joel Dahmen. Between this trio and first place sits Luke Donald, Im Sung-jae and Scott Stallings in a tie for third.
Donald has been battling injury and has only made three PGA Tour starts this season. He even took a share of the lead at one point with a long birdie putt.
There is a sizable tie for ninth place at three under that has Jon Rahm in contention.
Rahm made a birdie-bogey-birdie start before levelling out. He was mistake-free for most of the day with three more birdies until a bogey on the par-four 18th hole capped off his round.
A number of golfers were close to not making the cut. Sergio Garcia, Henrik Stenson and Zach Johnson are just some of the names to inch by in a tie for 49th place at one over.
Some notable names to not make the cut were Gary Woodland – who missed the weekend for the first time in his last 23 starts to snap a tour-best streak – Keegan Bradley, Charl Schwartzel and Jason Day.
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