Chances are your lawn got like that due to improper watering to make it go brown followed by improper watering to make it recover.

Always, always, ALWAYS, seed cool season grasses in the fall. Never seed them in the summer and only seed them in the spring if you have bare dirt with no weeds or anything.

Watering: Deep and infrequent is the mantra for watering. This is for all turf grass all over the place. Deep means 1 inch all at one time. Put some cat food or tuna cans around the yard, and time how long it takes your sprinkler(s) to fill all the cans. Memorize that time. That will be the time you water from now on. My hose, sprinkler and water pressure takes 8 full hours to fill the cans. Your time will likely be less. I like gentle watering. As for watering frequency, that depends on the daytime air temperature. With temps in the 90s, deep water once per week. With temps in the 80s, deep water once every 2 weeks. With temps in the 70s, deep water once every 3 weeks. With temps below 70, deep water once a month. Note that you have to keep up with quickly changing temps in the spring and fall. This deep and infrequent schedule works in Phoenix and in Vermont, so it should work for you. The reason for deep and infrequent is to grow deeper, more drought resistant roots and to allow the soil to dry completely at the surface for several days before watering again. If it rains, reset your calendar to account for the rainfall.

Mowing: Mulch mow at the mower's highest setting. The exceptions to highest setting are bermuda, centipede, and creeping bentgrass which should all be mulch mowed at the mower's lowest setting.

Fertilize in the late spring (Memorial Day), early fall (Labor Day), and late fall (Thanksgiving).

Thanks for your info. Did seed in the fall last year. Over-seeded in early spring and with the combo of starter fertilizer it took nicely. Did mow on the highest setting all season. Like I said all summer long (on the same watering regime) the lawn looked like Augusta National. Just recently started to brown out like that. After posting I went out to thatch alittle bit. In the scorched places it's pulling right up leaving the exposed soil. It's hard to see in the photo because of the bright sunlight but that's a pile of dead grass in the center top of the photo.

This year we've had bright sunshine/minimal cloud cover/and very little rain. It seems like it took it's toll on the lawn.

Looks like grubs.