Considering that it is new sod in its first year, the pattern of the browning, and your location/temperatures, my first inclination is that you are applying too little water. It takes 625 gallons of water to cover 1000 sq. ft. with 1" of water which is the general recommended amount. So you need to be applying about 312 gallons for your yard. Just to get an idea how long you should be watering, use your nozzle and see how long it takes you to fill a 5 gallon bucket. Multiply that time by 62 and that is how long you should be watering for 1". Regardless, you need to Immediately determine what , if anything, is attacking the lawn before applying a cure. Look at the blades of "green" grass that is adjacent to a "dead" area for lesions, powdery substances or coatings. Also look for any insects in the crowns or soil. Compare anything you find to images of diseases and insect infestation that can be located on university turf sites or from a Google search "images of lawn diseases".

you use the HTML CODE .. and on preview.. if you see it... we will see it ... it is not necessarily the third down ... but it is for you .. anyway ... direction of sun??? .. the smaller shrubs.. look like they are now shaded out.. as the poplars outgrew them ... and they aint happy about that ... also .... the poplars are probably sucking all the moisture out of the soil... in an area twice as large as the canopy above ... thats not a great pruning stub .. but that didnt kill the tree .. where is dad.. and how bad was last years heat and drought??? any recent construction .. how about a pic of the trunk at the ground ... a call to the county extension office.. might get you a quick answer about any plagues running thru the area.. in regard to poplar ... all that said.. poplar are an extremely fast growing.. short lived tree ... i wish dad had planted something better ,,, or at least every other tree a better tree... i planted sticks of poplar.. simply shoved them in the ground.. in 5 years they were 20 feet tall ... in 7 years.. they were gone ... as that was the last season i could do it myself with my chainsaw .. and they were already breaking down enough for me to realize that it was going to cost me money i didnt have.. if i didnt get rid of them ASAP ... but having figured this in advance.. i had planted many oak ... and they were nice sized.. by the time the poplar had to go .... ken

Possibly Bacterial Spot 'Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria'. Try a product called Serenade or a copper-based plant disease control product.

Thanks all for the nutrients, I gave it Burpees new organic plant granular food, they. it says feed up to 3 months, I know thats bull lol don't know why I bought it when I used miracle grow water solubale for past 4 years with no problem. I am gona do that every 7-10 days now. But prior to the first feeding, the lady recomended I waited a few weeks for that granular stuff. After I did it didnt see results as much as I did with the MG so I used last years supply and stupidly right before it rained hard for a few days. Gona stick with it. Prior to this my mother nd I wwater them once a day when really hot then every other day or so. Also I remember reading about Fungicide and just ordered last night it. It should be arriving today, got to love thath amazon shipping. Gona take all advice and stripp leaves and all. Thanks again all