Thanks to the help of many from prior posts, I have narrowed my spring project down to either Zenith Zoysia or Latitude 36 Bermuda. Lengthy post, but I wanted to add as much information as I can.

Location: St. Charles MO, (St. Louis suburb) upper part of transition zone but new maps tend to continue to to move us in toward more of the middle.

Current Lawn: I currently have TTF for the most part. Past 6 years I brought it back from rough to a fairly decent lawn through a consistent over-seed, aeration, weed / feed system. I do not have an irrigation system, so summers have been tough when it gets hot. Last year was kind of the last straw, I lost a lot of sections of the lawn as we had heavy rains and then a lot of heat. I am going to sod the section of the lawn where a play set was located, and I also have about 7 sections of 100 sf each that are almost bare.

Photos: I included two photos of the law from a few years ago so the lawn looks better than it's current condition. The area is mostly full sun, except for two Cleveland Pear trees. The back of the home faces south, so the shaded areas from the tree are fairly small. I back to a golf course, and it flash floods at times of heavy rains, and then it recedes within an hour or so. I only mention this as my yard from the street to rear slopes down (about one story) to a flat back yard, so the back yard after heavy rains does stay pretty wet for a day or two.

Sod: They sell Zenith locally, as well as Meyer, I would like to go with Zenith based on prior research. Almost all Bermuda sold locally are the common types and most sod farms view it as a "weed". I located a sod farm 3 hours south that grow Latitude 36 and it sounds fantastic and really liked the photos.

I am focusing on the above two varieties. I have a few concerns with each, and thus am looking for any feedback I can get on either of them for my location. I like the fact that each of them are pretty drought tolerant and that both will spread to allow me to get a full lawn over the next few years. I plan to sold the swing set area, and the 7 bare spots, from there, I will probably plug over the next few years and cut / fertilize to the strength of either of the two grasses.

Zenith - originally my first choice. I am familiar with Meyer Zoysia since it is common in the older parts of St. Louis, I love the fact that it chokes out weed growth and only needs a once a week cut. The only concern I have with it is whether my rear lawn is too wet after rain falls. This quote is from an article from Mo Univ in 2013 and large patch disease "In addition, large patch is particularly severe and spreads quickly in saturated or flooded soils, which have been spurred by our numerous rainfall events.". My rear yard after a full day, hard rain will puddle in a lot of areas since it is very flat, and it is usually would be a couple of days before I could cut the grass. Light rains are fine, but heavy rains take 2-3 days to really dry out. Will this be a constant problem for Zoysia?

Latitude 36 - I have some common bermuda already coming in my yard all along the fence line. The course has bermuda and mostly zoysia fairways, but it is bermuda in patches that is at the fence line. Having not seen the newer bermuda in person, my concern with it is that it will require too much cutting to keep it nice looking. (the common i am familiar with gets very fuzzy when long. I currently have a rotary mower and it can go down to 1 1/2, not against purchasing a reel mower, but with 10,000 sf of lawn I am not the guy that will cut it every 3-4 days. Once a week is fine :). I am willing to go this route though if it will handle the back yard saturation that occurs on heavy rains better than zoysia, can be cut once a week at 1 1/2" - 2 1/2" at only once a week, while still retaining enough thickness to choke out weeds.

Any thoughts on the above concerns while meeting those needs?

Thanks!