Then a match play championship, Leo Diegel defeated Al Espinosa 6 and 5 in the finals to win the first of his two consecutive titles.

[3] Prior to the finals, Diegel defeated both Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen, the winners of the previous seven PGA Championships, in the two preceding matches.

Five-time champion Hagen had won 22 consecutive matches and four straight titles at the PGA Championship.

Prior to his loss to Diegel in the quarterfinals, his match record in the 1920s was 32–1 (.970), falling only to Sarazen in 38 holes in the 1923 finals.

The match play format at the PGA Championship in 1928 called for 12 rounds (216 holes) in six days:[2] Saturday, October 6, 1928