Hello Vic,

It is difficult (nearly impossible) to diagnose a turf issue from pictures alone.

What this does look like is a warm season turf like zoysia or Bermuda grass. Warm season grasses in Michigan are dormant and straw colored until July/August when our weather is the hottest when they green up. Then by September, they are dormant and straw colored again. Zoysia has a habit of aggressively advancing during the hottest part of the summer when the cool season turf is stressed and dormant. Your description of the grass dying in greater areas matches the growth pattern of zoysia. https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/zoysiagrass_a_warm_season_grass_in_a_cool_season_world

Does the “dead area” ever green up late in the summer? If so, then I think you have an infestation of warm season grass.

If these “dead” areas never green up, then you may have a disease such as a fungus that continues to spread each year. This year, if you have green areas that are dying, you can take a sample of turf at the margin (capturing some healthy turf and dying turf) and send it to the MSU Diagnostic lab to identify the disease. There is a fee for this service. The description of the services and the fee structure can be found here: https://www.canr.msu.edu/pestid/

Hope this helps.