Looks like lack of water to me. When you run over grass that's already crisp with your mower it tends to accelerate the browning.

Do you have temps in the 90s already...in zone 6A?

We have , nearly a week straight already.

Watered the end of May, then on 6-9 since we were in the 80s and 70s, and then again on the 16th since we were in the 90s. I follow your rule pretty closely.

What is the best way to recover from the drought stress? Extra water? I guess i've never realized if that dies off completely and fills back in or if the grass can bounce back.

I have the same in my bermuda this week. The color is golden like that. Mine, though are just a few spots along my sidewalk where I know are my low spots I need to fix. Your weather pattern looks alot like mine here in the Nashville area. We were promised rain Monday, then Tuesday, and by then nothing. It was getting time I needed to water, but I waited too long because I knew some thunderstorms were coming. I'll have to wait it out for the spots to come back, but in the meantime I'm enjoying the rain finally!

My grass does seem to be aware, but we have lessons every day followed by meditation.

I would be very surprised if that was from a simple lack of watering. I'm still not watering an inch a week yet, and we have had weeks of temps in the 90s. You had a few days of warm weather, but the weeks leading up to last week were more like watering every 2-3 weeks weather. I suppose the heat wave could have done that if you really were on that schedule, but you said you were watering an inch weekly.

I'm thinking you have something buried there. Try sticking a long screwdriver into the soil to see if you hit something buried in the top several inches. If there is buried rubble or a largish rock there, that can hold the heat better resulting in higher evaporation and the need for more water.

You just can't compare St. Augustine drought and heat tolerance to a cool season grass' drought and heat tolerance. They're called warm season and cool season grasses for a reason.

This was at the tail end of of its worst. I've already checked for something beneath the soil and there is not. I checked along the driveway last night and found a good layer of stones about 4-6 inches down, so that damage is from stone but not the main area of concern.

This is bluegrass btw, should have mentioned that earlier perhaps. Also gets full sun as this picture faces SSE. My thought was a fungus maybe not since it is beginning to bounce back.

Summer patch does happen on KBG but I'm a little rusty on my research & can't remember if it follows mower tracks...

In my opinion that grass didn't get enough water and browned.

I have a spot that looks similar but alot smaller..I accidently spelt some 34-0-0 fertilzer while trying to pour it back in the bag.Yours looks like fertilizer burn IMO.

Fertilizer burn is not possible, had only spread Halts in March and Soybean Meal first week of May before taking this photo.

It's difficult with a hose attached sprinkler to get the right kind of coverage for the whole lawn.....you may want to check how you positioned it and if the areas in question were in fact getting watered.

Also, are those areas in more direct sun than those areas still green?

I just posted on another thread looking at a picture of dead spots. This thread has much more activity..

Any way that can be cinch bugs?

My father yard had this and showed some yellowish looking dead spots. Also in some other yards in the area. Seems to be the specific time of year for these pests and is of course mistaken for watering or other issues sometimes.

I just googled images of cinch bugs on kbg...