I honestly can't tell what kind of grass that is by the photos. My first look at the closeups and thought it look like st. augustine. Suffice it to say you've got a bit of a problem there but nothing you can't fix.
First of all, you might as well go ahead and forget about fixing this during the summer. There's only one thing left to do until fall and that's watch it deteriorate even more.
At the very least you'd want to overseed in the fall to cover the bare spaces. If you want to replace the wide bladed grass that you have now you can kill it off with roundup and start from scratch as many will be doing in the fall. This will give you the rare opportunity to fill in depressions in the yard if the ground is bumpy. Tilling is not recommended and you may even find it impossible in heavily compacted clay. But what you can go ahead and do is start aerating. You can try to bring in topsoil but that is a monumental undertaking for a large yard and you're stuck with the same soil once the roots start to get established. It may help to improve the texture of the soil at the surface making germination more successful and faster than on clay. You can also decide on what type of grass you want to plant and go ahead and buy the seed. The time to plant is about two and a half to three months away.

Oh and you might want to figure out how you're going to water this.
And plant some trees. Cool season grass in the south is much more successful with afternoon shade. Otherwise figure on overseeding every year and irrigating a lot.

Serious question....why would I want to kill off the wide blade grass?

That's a majority of what little grass is actually there.

How did you know the yard was so bumpy :)

I had initially considered just bringing in a couple of truck loads of topsoil and spreading it out to try and even out the ground a little and just re-sow everything.

I have a lot of neighbors with fescue and different kinds of sod. I like the fescue because it stays green longer, but can you recomend another grass that might work out better?

If I am going to do a major renovation on the yard, I would like to only have to plant it once.

I have intentions on planting trees, but would rather wait until it cools off a little to break out the jack hammer on the yard. Would the extra shade have a bearing on what sort of grass to plan on going back with?

I appreciate all of your help on this.

Spotco, as Quirky suggested, now is not the time to start doing anything major to improve your yard.

The best thing you could do is what you have started. Learn your options. Read all the Frequently asked Questions. Then I would suggest using the search feature on this forum. Start with St Augustine. That is what your wide bladed grass probably is. Once you see the pros and cons of that, hit fescue, turf type tall fescue. Then overseeding. If you want to really get "in" to being a lawn whacko, go over to the soils forum to see how best to improve your soil before you start a lawn re-do. You can also go to the organic lawn forum to see what they offer on improving and maintaining a top flight lawn.

Then you will have an idea of what YOU want.

Spotco, is your grass the greenest in the summer or is it greenest in the fall and winter and spring?
The reason I suggested killing off the wide bladed grass is because there are better looking turf-type tall fescues that can be used. (If that's what it is) You may want to use a shade blend near the trees (be sure to leave a decent 6' or so mulch ring around them instead of seeding up to the trunk) Most people have this concept of a very dark green and very fine bladed lawn. Others prefer a light green and very coarse textured appearance. then there are some folks in between.

"Spotco, as Quirky suggested, now is not the time to start doing anything major to improve your yard."

Why not?

Summer is when S.A. is actively growing. S.A. spreads rapidly by creeping stolons, not seeds. St. Augustine grass can be successfully established from plugs anytime during the growing season if water is available.

Do some research for establishing S.A. turf, theres alot of info out there. Also, have you considered using mulch or ground cover instead of grass in some of those bald areas. Say Under/around all trees???

A few things about lawn care:

First:
and most important in your case. Sharpen That Mower Blade!! That grass looks like it was chewed by a snaggle toothed rabbit.
Keeping the mower blades sharp and properly balanced is important. A leaf cut by a sharp blade will heal over more quickly and lose less water than a leaf blade shredded by a dull mower blade.

Second:
Mowing frequency and cutting height need to be carefully considered for a healthy lawn. Using the highest cutting height on the mower will facilitate turfgrass drought-conditioning. This will increase the grass leaf area, allowing for more photosynthesis. This results in more carbohydrates, which are then available for use in recovery from stresses such as drought. The higher the mowing height, the deeper and more extensive the root system will be. Although transpiration (water loss through leaves) will be slightly greater with higher mown turf, the expanded root system proves more advantageous.

Third:
Apply only enough water to wet the soil in the rootzone. 3/4 inch of water is generally sufficient. Do not water the lawn again until signs of wilt occur again. This technique works regardless of turfgrass species, soil type, season, or other environmental conditions.

Hope this helps

"why not in summer" is because I highly doubt that is really st. augustine. It's about as likely to be st. augustine in rockmart, ga as it to be KBG. Not very likely. The distance shot has the color of tall fescue so may it is K31 or one of those forage or utility types.
That is why I asked when it is green above your reply.

You're right skoot, I let my cool season grass mentality slip in there. I think the main thing is still right though. Figure out what he has, learn the pros and cons and then make some decisions from there.

It sure looks like S.A. to me.
Look at the (grass3.jpg) pic, its a close up.

Spotco2,

I feel your pain, I live just outside Nashville on the Southeast side and I have pretty much the same soil conditions with the small exception that between 2"-16" inches below the surface of my hard-red clay are large rock shelves which seem to prevent grass from growing where they come too close to the surface.

Are those cedar trees in your lawn as well? Those needles dropped will kill out the grass underneath them so I would take the advice of putting tree-rings as far as 6' out to make the lack of grass look deliberate. ;-p

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:101134}}

Looks like you are the proud owner of a neglected K31 fescue "lawn." It also looks like you have been ripping it to shreds instead of mowing it.

The mower part is easy - just sharpen the blade.

Fixing the rest will have to wait until the summer heat breaks. After that, spend a couple weeks watering it to start to break up that hard soil. You will have to water for a few minutes, let it soak in, water a few minutes more, let is soak in. After the soil is no longer a brick, you can rent an aerator and make several passes over the whole lawn. If you have the time and money, this would be a great opportunity to sprinkle some compost around to improve the soil. After that, seed at the rate for establishing a new lawn. With your conditions, I would recommend you stick with a turf type tall fescue.

Ok, I did some digging and found some old, partial bags of seed that might give us some hints as to what I have.

I found a bag (25 lbs) of Scotts Turf Builder Atlanta Mix with 58.81% Admiral Tall Fescue, 39.11% Velocity Tall Fescue and a little "other". There was a 10 lb bag of Scotts Turf Builder Tall Fescue For Shade with 44.31% Tracer Tall Fescue, 29.38% Insignia Tall Fescue, 23.88% SR8500 Tall Fescue and a little "other". The kicker was the huge bag of Gulf Annual Ryegrass from Pennington with 99.83% Pure Seed.

There was also a partial bag of Scotts Souther Turf Builder 23-2-13. So at least they tried to fertilizer a little at some point.

Yes, I know I need to sharpen that mower blade. I just did that about 7 or 8 years ago :) I'll take care of that this week. I will also drag out the aerator and fill it with water. There was a dethatcher behind the building when I got here. I drug it around the yard last fall and cleaned up about a half of a truck load of crap.

I have always cut the grass with a Snapper rider with the blade set one notch below high. Do I need to drop it some for this grass?

In my perfect world, I would love to have a nice dark green grass that feels like carpet as I walk across it. Maybe one say that will happen, but at this point I would settle for anything but dirt.

I appreciate all of your help and comments.

In my perfect world, I would love to have a nice dark green grass that feels like carpet as I walk across it.

You can have it at least part of the year. If you want it the entire year you're going to need irrigation, afternoon shade and possibly some soil ammendments or improvements.