Auburn suggests Dynasty, Gala, Rebel (any), Falcon III or IV, Southeast, and Padre. You were also going to call your extension office to see what they suggested. In researching varieties, look for good brown patch resistance. You may need to order seed online or by phone if you want specific cultivars. If possible get certified sod quality seed.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that part of the conversation. Have had a rough time with the extension office. Have called several times. They ended up giving me the turf guy's cell # to get a hold of him. Have left him a couple of messages and he hasn't called back. Also submitted a question via their "ask an expert" section on the website. The response I got was a general "You should use TTTF" without recs on specific types. Am continuing to work that angle to try to get a better answer.

TTTF does perform better than most other grass types in more shaded areas, although it still requires considerable sunlight to flourish.

Red fescue is the most tolerant of heavier shade. For "a couple of hours" of sun a day, this might be a consideration. It really dislikes overly hot, dry conditions, however, and areas under trees (if that's what's causing the shade) do tend to be dry. And your locale sure is hot.

Photos of the area might help. It could be that something other than grass is a better solution and would lead to a lot less frustration for you, but if you have your heart set on grass we'll try to work with it.

@Morph Thanks for the quick reply. I'm pretty convinced I can grow grass in the area in question (photos below). My front yard actually looks halfway decent all things considered (e.g. just started taking an interest in it). The front yard has two large oak trees in it that shade it in the afternoon. It gets no morning sun either (west side of house). So first, pictures of the area to redo (all pictures taken late in evening):



For comparison sakes, here is the front yard (which is basically just to the right of the two above pictures).
And one final picture...a close up of the grass in the front yard. I ID'd it as some sort of fine fescue. Anyone else want to offer an opinion?

I'm dreadful at ID, so I'll leave that to others. :-)

From the looks, it's already a pretty nice lawn. Adjusting the resources in the soil will, I think, lift the quality across the board significantly, although you're in good enough shape that I wouldn't expect miracles. Still, that will help.

Yes, the front in general, is pretty nice. I'm getting lots of broadleaf
weeds in the front this year, I think encroaching from that atrocious
side yard area. I also haven't shown pictures of the back yard:-) It's a
mess...full sun, basically some bermuda, but predominantly violets that
have taken over. Not sure what to do with those.

Auburn in their grass recommendations (which included warm season grasses) did not include fine fescue and I suggested to ask the extension agent why. It may be that it goes dormant so quickly in hot weather. I have some patches of grass that are green for a short while in spring and fall and brown otherwise. They are very fine leafed and have rhizomes, so I'm pretty sure it is creeping red fescue. I'm trying to figure how to get rid of it as it's dormant at seeding time and Roundup won't take it out then. Matt is in the transition zone for grasses so fescue is an option. The tree limbs seem to be high enough that light can get in. Mulch around the trees would be good.

@Becky I believe my wife and I have decided to mulch and do some landscaping (flowers, bulbs, etc) around the two large maples. Thanks for the idea! I understand why they don't recommend the fine fescues. I asked the extension about fine fescues/creeping red. In the email reply I got he said that "creeping red does not grow well here."

Thus why I'd really like to get an accurate ID of the grass in my front yard. I suppose it could be TTTF? In all honestly, I have almost zero experience with fescue (grew up in south mississippi...bermuda, st. augustine, and centipede) so my ID skills w/cool season grasses is awful. I feel confident the front yard is SOME type of fescue...just no idea what kind. I would love to seed the side yard with the same seed that is in the front since it has done so well there.

Wild violet is a living nightmare to get rid of, with chemical controls not generally being terribly effective. Their leaves are thick and waxy, and resist absorption of most herbicides. There are ways around that, but I don't generally recommend them due to the increased toxicity to you and the care required during application.

Ortho's Chickweed, Clover, and Oxalis killer has some impact on them due to the high levels of Trichlopyr, but repeat spraying will be necessary even if they're visibly already damaged. I'd strongly recommend spot spraying or very limited area spraying the violets to try to limit how much herbicide you're throwing around in this instance.

On the up side, it has a slight preference for calcium-short soils, so the calcium I recommended will help limit the spread of them a little bit. Not much, but let's take what we can get.

While they don't overmuch object to more shadowed areas, cutting your grass as tall as you can stand it will help a little (plus strengthen the grass). Then cut again sometime before it reaches half again its cut height--so if you cut at 3", you'd cut before 4.5".

A pre-emergent down in early spring will help limit sprout of new violets. The old ones are short-lived perennials, so if you can get control they'll fade out over a few years.