Dave Patchen (right), a 53-year-old beer truck driver from Oregon, Ohio is the Generations Bowling Tour Detroit Open Champion. He defeated Dale Eagle (left), Tavaras, Fla., 226-189, in the championship match Wednesday evening at Imperial Lanes in Clinton Township, Mich.

Eagle got two doubles in the match, but two open frames cancelled them out, while Patchen managed two turkeys. The three-bagger he rolled in frames 8, 9, and 10 sealed the win for the lefty.

"The first two days were rough, then I drilled a new ball and it got better," said Patchen. "This is a big win for me. I've won a few regionals, but his is the first big one. I'm very excited. I can't wait for the next three events."

"I had to be very precise," said Eagle. "I only had a couple of boards, so I really had to be accurate, but I'm happy with what I got. A lot of guys got no money."

In previous matches, Patchen defeated Mike Henry, 251-205, and No. 1 seeded David Ozio, 227-205. In the opening match of the Senior division Henry defeated Gary Hiday, 227-208.

In the Classic division Eagle defeated Jim Brenner, 194-154, in the semi-final and top-seeded Gary Dickinson, 254-211. In the first match, Brenner beat Ron Garr, 214-194.

Patchen earned $13,500 for his victory, and for the second consecutive week, Eagle took home a runner-up check for $8,800. Earning $4,000 each were David Ozio and Gary Dickinson. Henry and Brenner made $2,000 each, Hiday cashed for $1,600 and Garr took home $1,400.

Next week, the GBT moves to Jackson, Michigan for the third stop of its inaugural fall swing.

With match play complete, David Ozio (left) is the man on top of Generations Bowling Tour Detroit Open Senior division going into tonight's stepladder finals. Ozio averaged 226.30 for the 40-game event, and will await his opponent in the division final. If he can win that one game match, he will face off against the Classic division (60+) winner for the Detroit Open title and $13,500.

"They just got tighter and tighter and our score zone got smaller and smaller today," said Ozio. "We went from a little hook to no hook. I hope we have a little more tonight," he said.

Ozio has been the event leader in both GBT events, last week in Bay City and this week here in Detroit. In the division final last week, he lost to Mark Roth, who went on to win the tournament. "I got a few bad breaks in the finals last week. I hope it balances out tonight," he said.

In the Senior division final, the first match will feature #4 seed Gary Hiday, Indianapolis, Ind. against #3 Mike Henry, Brunswick, Ohio. The winner of that match will face #2 seed David Patchen, Oregon, Ohio, and the winner of the second match will face meet Ozio.

In the Classic division, Gary Dickinson (left) is the #1 seed after 40 games. He had a see-saw battle all week with last week's Classic division winner Dale Eagle.

"My draw was really good this week," said Dickinson. "Dale out-averaged me a little, but I won some close matches, and that was really key here," he said. Dickson's match play record was the best of all 24 finalists at 18-6.

In the Classic division, #4 seed Ron Garr, Ridgedale, Mo. will face #3 Jim Brenner, Le Claire, Iowa in the first match. The winner will then take on #2 seed Dale Eagle, Tavares, Fla, and the winner of that match will roll against Dickinson.

The finals begin at 6:00 pm Wednesday.

David Ozio (right) is a man with a target on his back in the Generations Bowling Tour Detroit Open second Round of match play. Despite winning only 7 of his 16 matches, he maintained his lead in the Senior division Tuesday evening with consistency and a strong finish, rolling three closing games of 236, 233 and 267.

"Pin carry is not good for me," said Ozio. "I finally got them to fall the last game. Before that, I just tried not to get frustrated from the lack of winning matches. Everybody that bowled against me teed it up and bowled their best game. My match play record is rather poor for as good as I'm bowling. It should be about 75%, but I think I'm around 40%," he said.

"My goal is to not let it bother me too much and just keep bowling good. There are a couple of lefties charging hard, so I just have to stay straight ahead. Tomorrow is a new day," he added.

In the GBT Classic division, Dale Eagle (pictured left) re-claimed the top spot from Gary Dickinson, finishing with a 50-pin lead at 7182 to Dickinson's 7132. Eagle lost his first three matches Tuesday night, but found the line in game 4 to reel off five straight wins.

"I was lost the first three games," said Eagle. "Then I changed my style a little bit. I tried to get behind the ball and fan it a little bit, and I averaged 230 the last five games and won every match," he said.

The third and final round of match play begins at 10 am Wednesday, after which the top 4 players from each division will square off in a stepladder final at 6:00 pm. The two division winners will roll against each other for the Detroit Open title and $13,500. The runner-up will earn $8,800.

David Ozio only won three of his first 8 matches in the Generations Bowling Tour Detroit Open match play round one at Imperial Lanes, but he rolled a few big games to stay ahead of his Senior division (50-59) opponents.

Ozio tossed games of 257, 279 and 245 in games 5-7, and is averaging 227.3 overall for the first 24 games of the 40-game event. His total is 5457 at this point of the event.

"I struggled early and decided to go really, really slow for a while and circle the ball, and I caught a couple of big games," said Ozio. "When I got back to the low end, they hooked, so I went back to normal speed. I just tried to play the pairs for what it called for. I wasn't very fortunate at winning matches, but we have a long way to go."

Two Ohioans sit in second and third place behind Ozio at this point. Mike Henry of Brunswick, OH and David Patchen of Oregon, OH both posted a 5-3 match play record with scores of 5460 and 5401.

In the Classic division (60+) Gary Dickinson is setting the pace at 5334, but he's only six pins ahead of Dale Eagle, who has a total of 5328. The key for Dickinson was winning matches. He went 7-1 in the first round to earn 210 bonus pins.

"I was fortunate on my draw," said Dickinson. "Nobody shot 200 at me until the last two games. I bowled decent but nothing big. I got seven of eight wins not shooting a lot, so I was fortunate," he said.

Round two of the GBT Detroit Open match play begins at 6 pm on Tuesday, and the final eight games will roll at 10am Wednesday. The top four in each division will advance to a stepladder final at 6 pm Wednesday.

R-L David Ozio and Dale Eagle held their top positions in the Generations Bowling Tour Detroit Open through the second eight-game qualifying round, but several players made big moves to gain ground on their leads.

In the Senior division, Roger Bowker, Ocala, Florida rolled a 300 game in the second game to anchor a huge 1915 8-game total, a 239.3 average, which moved him to within 55 pins of Ozio. Last week's GBT champion Mark Roth also made a big move to qualify in the third spot.

In the Classic division (60+) Eagle holds a 97-pin lead over Gary Dickinson going into the match play.

"Dale beat me twice last week in the match play, so I'm out to pay him back," said the tall Oklahoman. Dickinson credits his performance to bowling more games in the longer GBT format. "I think all the extra games last week helped me," he said.

It took a 206.1 average to make the cut to the top 16 in the Senior division, and a 200.2 to make the top 8 in the Classic division. Redford, Michigan's Larry Frantz captured the last spot in the 50-59 group, and 70-year-old Hall of Famer Teata Semiz got into the finals by 4 pins in the Classic division.

24-games of round robin match play begins Tuesday morning at 10 am, round two rolls at 6 pm Tuesday, then round three begins at 10 am Wednesday after which the top four in each division will roll in a stepladder finals for the title Wednesday evening at 6 pm.

Dale Eagle (pictured left), Tavares, Florida finished second in the Generations Bowling Tour Bay City Open last week. Sunday, he claimed the top spot after round one in the GBT Detroit Open at Imperial Lanes in Clinton Township, Michigan.

Eagle averaged 235.7 for the first 8 games to dominate the GBT Classic division and finish 10 pins ahead of Senior division leader David Ozio (right), Beaumont, Texas. Eagle's total was 1886 for the round.

"I changed my rotation a little after the practice balls, and that's what did it. It worked the whole block except the last game, when I should have moved in a little. I just tried to keep real firm. It wasn't like last week. This week, I tried to keep it tight," said Eagle.

Ozio found the condition a little more challenging than he expected, but found what he needed in game 7, finishing strong with lines of 278 and 257.

"In about the third or fourth game I was looking at meltdown because the carry was really tough," said Ozio. "I was changing things around and threw about seven different balls in the block to try to get more strikes. I saw Dale (Eagle) was going straighter and striking more than me, so I changed balls after the sixth game to go straight and shot two big games the last couple. I also issued up a little prayer, which never hurts," he said.

Monday, both Eagle and Ozio will bowl the 1:30 squad, the qualifying will be complete and the field will be cut to the top 24 for the match play finals, which begin Tuesday at 10 am.