Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-10-06
LEO'S GREAT PLAY
DEFEATS SARAZEN
Takes Match From Former
Title Holder by 8 Up
and s to Go.
BY WALTER r.. McCALLUM.

BY WALTER TX. MctALLtm.
ALTIMORE. Md. october 6.-Lec
Diegel should win the cham
N pionship of the professional
IL Golfers Association today. The
temperamentai New York pro
who met Al Espinosa OF chicago IN Iile
FINAL round of the pro match pay
championship today, is an oVerwhelm-
Ing fsvorite to beat the Chicagoan. VINO
came through TO the final round yester-
dsv bv beating young Horton Smith OF
Chicago. 6 and S. Leo is the favorite
because he gave Gene Sarazen OF New
Work the worst trouncing yesterday that
stock little former title holder has ever
taken in these match play Tits. Leo
won nv Q and 8. but the margin OF
victory does not fully express the
xIneriority Of Diegel over Sarazen.
Of course Gene was off, for no man
IN the world can beat .Sarazen by such a
margin if he is right. But Leo, VINO
Knocked the match play crown from
Walter Hagen'S head Thursday, was
right. and had he been pushed to the
limit the margin might have oeen
greater.
EspinOsa Playing Well.
Espinosa has been playing great golf,
barring the miserable exhibition ne put
IN Wednesday against Bob Mcdonald,
but nevertheless the Drowned Chicagoan
has been knocking the ball around TINS
tough golf course in unoelleVanle
figures. Leo, however, having gotten
through the first four match play
rounds. is brimful of confidence after
beating Hazen and Sarazen on sue
cessive DAYS, and should beat Esplnosa
bv small margin. Al is no mans easy
meat. however. and the match may be
a humdinger from the first tee to the
last putt.
Today marks Diegel's second appear
snce in the final round of the cham
pionship. Two years ago, at Salisbury,
Hagen beat him in the final round to
win his third consecutive championship,
and the year preceding Leo went to the
fortieth hole TO lose to Hagen. But this
year Leo, who used to be the pro at the
Friendship Club of Washington, Is
prirned to win.
Leo far outplayed Sarazen yesterday.
The little New Yorker, who has been
prime favorite to win, was plainly of
his game, and fell before Diegel by the
crushing margin of and 8. Espinosa
downed young Horton Smith of Joplin,
Mo. by and s. Diegel was around in
a mediocre rs in the morning to be
up on Sarazens very bad so. And Gene,
instead Of getting better in the after
noon, got far worse-so bad, indeed,
that by the time the eighth hole of the
afternoon round had been played Leo
was up.
Match Is Walkaway.
After that the match was a walkaway,
and when Gene missed a six-footer TO
win the eighth, Diegel was in. But the
relentless Leo, mavlng fast toward his
big title shot, won the ninth to become
dormie up on Gene and when they
halved the tenth, the match was over.
Espinosa started out as if to make
the match against young Horton Smith
fast runaway, scoring a II in the
morning round to turn up on Smiths
3d.
But the tall lad from Missouri played
the first nine holes of the afternoon
round in 33 to SO for Espinosa and had
cut the lead of the Chicagoan down to
four holes. At the tenth, however, he
put his second shot in the water, and
lost the hole TO buzzard for Espinosa.
Smith was not yet through, for he ran
down a 20-footer birdie on the
eleventh, to leave him still 4 down
But he lost the twelfth, where he over
pitched the green to become down
with to go. Espinosa laid niblick
shot four feet from the pin to win the
short thirteenth with a birdie 2, after
Smith had missed shot in a bunker
and finally picked up his ball after
playing three shots.