Maybe I'm missing something but I wasn't able to show that f(3)=28 without first classifying all polynomial solutions to the functional equation.
First the only non-constant solutions to the function equation are f(x)=0 and f(x)=2 which do not satisfy the condition that f(2)=9.
If you assume f(x) is a non-constant polynomial of degree d > 0 and plug a(0) + a(1)x + ... + a(d)x^(d) into the functional equation then you can determine that a(0)=1, a(d)=1 or -1, and that all other coefficients are 0. In other words, f(x) = 1+x^(k) or 1-x^(k) for k=0,1,2,...
Since f(2)=9, f(x)=1+x^(3) and f(3)=28.