Kind of a newby, yes, I could tell. But some of us like to help folks like you. Where do you live? Big Bear? La Jolla? Heber? Victorville? It makes a big difference in SoCal. How do you have the sprinklers set? How often and for how long? You're going to need to test the sprinklers to see how long it takes to apply 1 inch of water. Put some tuna or cat food cans in the yard and turn on the water. Time how long it takes to fill all the cans. Remember that number. Can you post some pictures of your grass(es) and weeds? It would be rare if your soil had a lot of clay in it. It would not be rare at all if it had a lot of salts in it that act like clay. Only a good soil test can tell you that. I'm not suggesting that you need a soil test, I'm just saying you can't be too sure of the soil content by what others tell you. Whether this is salvageable and how depends on where you live and what you have. Seeding can be tricky, but we can help with that, too. If you do it wrong, you'll get bad results every time. There are a few ways to do it right and a lot of ways to do it wrong.

Star Jasmine, Trachelospermum jasminoides. One of the most common landscape plants in So. Cal. Joe

Cynara cardunculus, Cardoon?

I'd say 90% chance it's a hybrid bermuda like Tif419 or Tif-Sport. No other turf in SoCal can take the punishment of sports and come back like bermuda.