I wouldn't bother. Leave it dormant. Water every two weeks or so if its hot and dry for an extended period. weed grass like poa annua and poa triv hopefully will die. your lawn is not fertile ground for moles. I feel like it is less risk for grubs but I cant prove that. Bonus:. you'll save a small fortune in water costs.

You're correct, it's less risk for grubs. Japanese beetles won't lay eggs as readily in lawns that are sere and dry, they have a preference for green pastures, like anything else.

So if yours is the nice one, everything that likes a green lawn will head for it. Same with the gardens. Sometimes that's an advantage, like with bees and butterflies. Sometimes not, like with the grubs.

There's also fescue and rye in that lawn. Are those dormant or dead at this point?

Napping. Fescues and ryegrasses don't really go dormant,per se, but they tolerate drought really, really well. I've spent (mis-spent, actually) time in Maine and fescue and ryegrasses don't have trouble surviving even the driest summers there.

Huh, I was under the impression that either of both of those grasses (rye, I think) weren't so good under conditions that would send KBG into dormancy.

Two different methods, two different routes, with the same result. Fescue and rye slow down a lot earlier and drop into lower gears. relying on safe, careful driving during bad weather. Bluegrass will drive right off the cliff, relying on its dormancy mechanism to save it by simply not being awake when the police come looking for who caused the accident.

Both work just fine.

Interesting analogy, morph. Thanks for the chuckle!

Maybe I was thinking that rye/fescue won't go dormant like KBG and that you have to be more careful than with KBG?

That's certainly true. In both cases, actually, I'd suggest a quarter inch of water every 2 weeks or so. Even bluegrass would like it to keep the roots alive and happy.

I've seen all the grass types survive very extended droughts by slowing down biological processes almost to the point of effective dormancy even if they can't go formally "dormant."

I'm sure (cough) there are those who will call me on the technical terminology (and have been noticeably absent), and that's quite correct, but if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...well, that doesn't necessarily mean it's a duck, but it probably tastes much like duck if you shoot it and bake it up with a nice white wine sauce.

There's technical care, what works, and what it'll actually tolerate when fully established out in the real world. And the last is a lot worse than what it usually gets.

One thing to note is that wear, as from kids playing or adults performing sports or whatnot during drought is a total no-no on any lawn (you know that, others reading may not). Tearing at the crowns and roots is just a bad idea when it's under stress. And some lawns just don't like stress at all, but most common ones don't mind.