Hot Sun Lawn Damage???

Just moved to Lake Elsinore, CA and we have no experience with 100 plus degree summers. We are losing the lawn we put in the beginning of June. Since we are watering it as instructed and the shaded areas are still green, I am concluding that it has been burned by the sun. Is this true/common? Will it come back? What should we be doing to help it? We tried putting up some makeshift shading, but feel like we are losing this battle. The grass is Tall Fescue and it is not an option to do without a grassy area (re: our 'doggy' lifestyle), although apparently we may have to flagstone the hot spots?! Thanks so much for any suggestions and info.

It's most likely not sunburn exactly, what you're seeing is the impact of heat + sun on grass that didn't have time to get established before it got hit with stressful summer weather. June in a hot climate isn't the ideal time to plant grass (or most anything else). If you can shade it some now that may help, otherwise wait until the weather cools off and see if some of it comes back (I've seen lawns in my neighborhood go mostly dormant in the summer when they don't get watered enough, but then when it cools down and we get rain they bounce back) Since yours hadn't had time to get fully established before the hot summer there may be some spots that will be dead and need to be redone, but hopefully some of it will pull through and green up again. You may have some areas that died though and will need to be redone and I'd definitely make sure and do that during the rainy season so it has a chance to get established before next summer rolls around, otherwise you'll just be going through the same thing again.

Personally, I've found I much prefer crushed gravel to grass (I have dogs and they do just fine with it). When I've tried to have grass, the stress the dogs put on it from running around on it and peeing on it plus the stress of warmish dry summers has made me rather less than successful.

Thanks so much ecrane3. Makes sense, we'll see what survives.

Ecrane is right in that the lawn has not had time to set good roots before the hot weather hit it, here in UK, the time to grow or make a new lawn is normally between late September to November or early spring from April to Mid May, both these times are best because either the soil is still warm in Autumn but the heat has gone from the sun and in early spring, the soil is JUST beginning to warm up and the days where there is sun are still short and sun is not at it's hottest therefore the turfed lawn is not needing gallons of water sprayed onto it each day.
These months are also chosen for making a lawn with seed, you spend about 2 weeks preparing the soil to grow the seeds and levelling the area and then watering is more manageable then also.
I would go with what Ecrane has suggested and wait see what has happened once the temp drops, but I would still water the lawn area IF allowed, next spring I would have a good look at the lawn and maybe give a spring feed to the areas that have survived.
Hope you don't loose the whole lawn area but if you have to replace parts then do it long before the hot season begins. easier said than done in this ever changing climate we are all facing the last few years.
Good luck, hope the new lawn can be saved.
WeeNel.