When did this sod go down? Did the sod sit on the pallet more than a day? What has been your watering schedule since that day? How often and for how long? Is the grass knitted to the underlying soil/sand? Can you lift up any of the grass? This is almost certainly a disease issue caused by too much water and/or smothering on the pallet. New St Aug is just a little sensitive to it especially if it sat on the pallet too long. This time of year it is too hot to apply chemical fungicides. Besides that I've never (ever) seen one that worked for St Augustine. On the other hand, I have been very successful getting rid of disease in St Aug using ordinary corn meal. I've used it almost every year since 2002 with excellent results. Corn meal is the material which turned me away from chemicals in the garden. You can find corn meal at your local feed store, but call first to see what the price is. A 50-pound bag should be about $10. Apply by hand or any spreader at a rate of 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. It will take a full 3 weeks before you see the improvement. Then you'll see new grass coming up in the brown areas and no lesions on the older grass blades. Corn meal works through a biological process. It attracts a predatory fungus which feeds on the disease fungus. Once the sod is knitted to the ground, you can start backing off on watering frequency and going up on the time. Ultimately you should be watering no more than once a week in the FL summer heat and humidity. The rest of the year it would be more like once a month. For now, once you apply the corn meal, I would mist over the corn just enough to wash it down off the grass blades and onto the soil. Then let don't water for several days. The next time you water set out some cat food or tuna cans and time how long it takes your sprinkler to fill the cans. That is your target time for all future watering. That time will likely be between 20 minutes and 8 hours. Every sprinkler and hose system is different. Then that watering with the cans should last for several days. Watch the grass for any signs of wilting. As soon as you see it wilting, water again for your target time. Do this a few times and you'll soon be watering only once every week or so. I realize that this watering schedule goes against 100% of all the people you talk to in South FL, but it works. As an example I have a house on the edge of the Texas desert. There's about 23,000 square feet of grass. So far this year only about 6,000 square feet has looked wilted. I watered that, but as it turns out, I probably did not need to. My St Aug is a lot more mature than yours, though. The point is if I have not needed much water in the desert, then you should not need much water in the tropics.

Skoot_cat, As far as fertilizer goes... I brought in about two inches of compost when I tilled and leveled the yard prior to laying the sod. I also put down Scotts starter fertilizer per the instructions on the bag. Since then, I've decided to try the organic approach since I have a dog, a 2 year-old, and a 5 year-old. This past weekend, I spread soybean meal at the rate of 20# per thousand square feet. I had already considered putting a light layer of compost on the dead spots. I was just concerned between that, and the layer of dead grass, the new growth beneath might become smothered. Thanks for everyone's replies. I'll keep you posted and post pics if I ever get around to taking some. (And morpheus, how is the new front yard going? I was really enjoying your post along the lines of, "Now the Nervousness Begins," but it seemed to have died. I haven't had a chance to browse around and see if you had any updates on the progress.)

If you could get your camera about 3 inches away from the grass instead of 30,000 feet, I could likely confirm a fungal disease. The best pictures of grass are taken in the shade or on a cloudy day to minimize contrast caused by the sun. If you get close you'll see tan spots surrounded by dark brown spots. That's the disease. I'm guessing you live in Texas and have received more than your average share of rain in the past few weeks. If it is a fungal disease it will get better about 3 weeks after an application of ordinary corn meal at the rate of 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. You can get corn meal in 50-pound bags at your local feed store. If you cannot get it there look for a grocery store catering to the Hispanic community. Ask for (or find it yourself) corn flour. Don't get the premix used for making tortillas. It should come in 25 pound bags. I scatter it by hand. Flour tends to blow away, so you might want to use a drop spreader to apply it. And it tends to clog a drop spreader which is why I apply by hand. If it is a fungal disease and you live where the temps are in the mid to high 80s already, don't use anything but corn meal. If you live where it's cooler, you could use a chemical fungicide. I've never needed one, so I can't give you any hints. Corn meal has worked for my St Aug for the past 13 years. If you want to reapply after 3 weeks it won't hurt a thing. In fact if you want to reapply the next day it won't hurt anything either. This weekend is an excellent one, timingwise, to apply fertilizer anyway. Corn meal is a weak organic fertilizer. If you only use it on the affected spots, you'll have dark green grass there in a month. Corn meal works by attracting a predatory fungus as part of the decomposition. That fungus consumes the disease fungus and your grass will recover. If your lawn is in full sun, you might want to throw a couple pieces of Floratam St Aug sod down. It's a very fast growing variety that can actually outrun this particular disease. I see the disease in my Floratam, but it never seems to die out like yours is. I still hit it with corn meal because the spots are ugly.

On a cloudy morning take another picture or two. Get down so you're camera lens is 3 inches away from the grass blades and take a picture of the blades where they are turning from green to brown. I strongly suspect the grass was flooded and you have a disease. Some diseases can be treated with ordinary corn meal. I suspect yours is caused by flooding and will require a chemical fungicide. Post the new pictures and we can tell more. New Orleans, with highs in the low 90s, is more humid than hot. While it might be the most uncomfortable place in the US, the grass doesn't see it that way. Phoenix, at 115 degrees, is hot. The big difference is you don't get nearly enough evaporation in NO to justify watering so much to saturate the soil. All that you needed was to keep the surface of the underlying soil moist so the roots would grow down into it. Watering 3x per day, 5 minutes at a time, for a total of 15 minutes per day would have been more in the ballpark. Is there any chance the place you took the picture of is a low spot where there is standing water? Once the sod is knit to the ground, you can back way off on the frequency and go deeper. Here is a lot more on watering for mature grass. 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. With new bermuda or St Augustine sod, you can start treating it like mature turf much sooner than they do with the grasses in the north. I would transition as quickly as possible to watering 1/2 inch every 3-4 days until the temps drop back into the mid to low 80s. Then go to 1/2 inch per week and see if you can go to 1 inch all at once every 2 weeks.