You never want to amend a planting hole in clay soil! You actually should never amend individual planting holes in any kind of soil but you can get usually get away with it. But not so with clay. What you have created is just a soil bathtub - a tub of slow draining, heavy clay soil filled with very moisture retentive amended soil. There is no way for the soil to drain properly. And with as much water as is needed for the sod, the tree roots are just sitting in a bucket of muck and are rotting.

For the future, when planting in clay, you want a very wide but quite shallow, dished planting hole with strongly outward sloped and roughed up sides. Remove all wrappings and site the tree or shrub in the hole so that the top of the rootball is above the surrounding soil grade. Just a couple of inches is fine but as much as half the rootball can be exposed above grade (diagram suggests at least 8 inches but it depends on size of the tree being planted). Then backfill using only the soil removed from the planting hole, breaking up as necessary and mounding it up to the top of the rootball, leaving the root flare exposed and firming it in well. If you want to use compost or other soil amendment or need extra soil, this can be part of the mounded potion (above grade).

This will allow for decent drainage - no bathtub created - as well as allowing the tree roots to move out laterally and start breaking up that native clay soil.

So basically I'm not going to be able to save it?

Ugh! The nursery person said dig a hole twice as wide (no mention of a bathtub) and then mix the rich soil and compost and a tiny bit of the native clay soil (which didn't go well because it's literally clay and doesn't mix) put the tree in and fill the sides with the soil mixture. I did exactly that but it sounds like that is wrong! So is there a way to fix it based on what the tree leafs look like?

Since it has only been in the ground a short period of time, I would dig it up and replant it correctly. Will very likely pout for the rest of the season and could drop a lot of leaves early but replanting correctly is about the only hope you have of saving this tree.

Sorry you were given such poor information but just because they sell plants, it doesn't necessarily mean the nursery personnel know the best way to plant and care for them. Many are just seasonal laborers with minimal, if any, horticultural knowledge.

Ok so we got rid of all the original soil (if you can call it that) so when I dig it up should I go buy a certain type of soil?

I would take a day or so to think this through- the design you have up there makes no sense to me in terms of servicing the lawn maintenance.

All those rocks right next to where you are going to be weedeating? That is insanity.

Replace that "pile of rocks" border with something that will actually contain the mulch, keep the grass out, and make mowing and weedeating easier rather than more difficult- these are the functions of a border and a pile of rocks does none of that. The first neighborhood kid or dog that tromps through there and you have a mess. They may be all lined up and neat now but that will not last.

And why on earth would not you not expand that bed just a tad to include the tree? That would make the weedeating so much easier. What you have there now just doesn't work at all IMO.

just interested in trying to help the tree. Design choices and reasoning for placement are not the concern. Also everything has a metal border and has been there for over two years with no weeding issues. Rock is the consistent landscape choice in our area because of the dry high desert type climate. Thanks though

Since you removed all the native soil, I'm not sure what to tell you :-)

If you are going to amend a clay soil, then you need to do so over the largest possible area, never an individual planting hole. With the current, semi-finished configuration of the landscape (very small planting area bordered with rock and sod). that's going to be pretty hard to do without ripping everything up. About the best you can manage is to fully amend the planting area by working the current enriched soil/compost into the entire area. After allowing time for the loosened, amended soil to settle, replant the tree high, as much above grade as feasible, mounding up the soil into a small berm as described previously.

And make sure the dirt that will be under the root ball is solidly tamped, so the tree stays at the level you set it. I could tell you a story or two about that.

Maples are tough so once it's out of the 'Bath Tub' it should recover, not right away but it will recover. :-)

Thanks everyone! Look like I know what I'll be doing this weekend! Really appreciate the advice!