Thanks!!!

What kind of grass is it? Looks like fescue, somewhat.

Yes you have a disease. What kind of grass is that? I was expecting a northern grass but it looks like St Augustine.

In the first one you can see spots on the blades. This would be gray leaf spot if it is St Augustine.

In the rest of the pictures it just looks brown with no spots. That would be take-all patch or take-all root rot.

I'm going to send you back out to look more closely at the grass right at the ground. Is it dying from the soil up or from the tips down. Pull up some runners to see what they look like. Black runners obviously is not good. Black spots at the nodes of the runners means still another disease.

The problem with disease in the heat is many fungicides will kill the grass or not work at all when applied on hot days. Read the label carefully before you buy anything.

When you find out it is too hot to apply a chemical fungicide, there is an organic approach you can try. Ordinary corn meal has been found to cause many diseases to die off. The disease is not killed by the corn meal but by another fungus that is attracted to the corn meal. The application rate is at least 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. You can use corn meal from the grocery store or you can look at your local feed stores (call first) for corn meal in a plain, 50-pound bag. Be sure they are not talking about corn GLUTEN meal. That is a different product. Corn is expensive this year so it might cost as much at $15 per bag (I used to buy it for $3). Corn meal takes three full weeks before you see any improvement. I would hit it with corn meal now and again in 3 weeks. Then evaluate in 6 weeks to see if it is working. If not, you have not lost anything, because you can't use the chemicals in the heat anyway. Plus you will find that corn meal is an organic fertilizer. Your remaining grass should be very deep green in 3-6 weeks.

Thanks for the heads up about the fungicide. I've got a bag sitting in my shed that I was thinking of putting down, but wanted to wait until I had a better idea of what is going on. I'll be sure to check the info on bag and the weather carefully. And quite frankly I may just go the corn meal route for the added fertilizer.

In terms of the grass, well I'm not sure what is in that part of the yard. I bought the house in Nov '09 and overseeded that area in Sept '10 with a mix of 80% TTTF (Faith and Firecracker) with 20% KBG (Bedazzeled). But what was there already could very well be St Augustine. It does go somewhat brown in the winter.

Would need some higher res and zoomed out pics to really see what is going on. Dig up a patch of it and take it to a garden center as your best bet for getting it figured out quickly. Let us know what they tell you.

Does that help any further in the diagnosis? The weather here isn't supposed to be too hot over the next few days and we are supposed to get afternoon thunderstorms so I'm thinking I may put down the Fungicide (the temps should be within the requirement) and then follow-up in three weeks with an application of the corn meal.

I truly appreciate the advice. Hopefully I can nip this in the bud before it really decimates my lawn. Thanks again dchall!

Corn meal can be found at feed stores (call first and ask where to find ordinary corn meal). It can also be found in 25-pound sacks at grocery stores that cater to the Latin community. Be sure to get the plain corn meal or flour. Quite often they sell a product with baking powder and salt in it as a 'masa mix' or 'tortilla mix.' That is NOT what you want. Ask them for the plain stuff. Even in San Antonio I would have to go to the grocery stores in the south or west side of town to find these large bags. Again, call first. Actually, recheck your neighborhood grocery to see if they have a Mexican or Cuban food section. They might have a limited supply there.