St Augustine sod help

I'd water it 30 mins a day in the evenings, set the blade a little higher on the mower and cut often. But I'm no grass expert

Couple points.
1. May was a bad time to lay sod. Fall and winter are ideal since the roots grow and establish prior to the stress of summer heat.
2. Yes, water more. The grass blades should stand nice and tall prior to cutting.
3. Raise your blades and cut grass at highest setting. Let the grass shade the soil.
4. Hold off on fertilizer this year unless it's real low in nitrogen and slower release.
5. Next spring fertilize and weed control like established yard and it will really take off.

Yep, applied fungicide last week at my house to tomatoes and lawn.

Not sure why any suplamental water would be needed right now

Google Randy Lemmon Yard fertilization schedule and follow it. Also if you just laid it down put on a layer of Medina Soil Activator.

was the ground that you laid the sod on very smooth? I laid some once over some clods and they held the sod up off the ground in places...those places felt mushy and dried up just like what you are showing. found out later, the way to fix it is to catch it after a good rain and roll it with a lawn roller to pack all of that down.

IMO looks over watered, potentially mold or something like that. If its soft long term, that's definitely over watered.

If it doesn't get sun all day, be careful on watering it. St Aug takes heat very well. I'd reduce the watering slowly until you hit a point where it starts to weep from looking thirsty. Then you'll know you are under watering.

Have you applied any fertilizer? May need a light fertilizer also. I don't like to hit it hard mid summer because you can burn it up.

The longer the grass in general I've found the more flexible to issues it is. St Aug really likes to be long too, as said the highest or close to the top of your mower in the summer especially. Longer grass is better for root growth also as it has more energy to put into root growth compared to regrowing the grass.

I also planted some back in May; I have lost some of mine b/c of the amount of water that runs off my roof and pools up close to the sidewalk. Mine did just what yours did, started off beautifully, deep dark green, growing like crazy, but then all the rain hit and I'm pretty sure it drown and rotted it. In my case, I never considered fungus, I'm 99% sure mine just got over watered from the rain and it's brown, dead as dead can be.

If the grass has been down for 3 weeks, you can cut watering back to one day a week. DO NOT WATER AT NIGHT. That will extend the amount of time the leaf is wet and you will end up with gray leaf spot and possibly brown patch. Fertilize it with 1lb of N/1000 sq ft. Lastly, DO NOT WATER AT NIGHT!!!