THE VILLAGES, Fla. — A North Carolina man has rolled the first 900 series in Professional Bowlers Association history – three straight perfect games.

Joe Scarborough, a 50-year-old self-employed electrical contractor from Charlotte, opened the first round of qualifying in the PBA50 Sun Bowl on Sunday with three games of 300, throwing 36 consecutive strikes.

Scarborough was competing in his second event in the renamed PBA Senior Tour. He said his previous high three-game series was an 838 and he had bowled 14 prior 300 games.

Scarborough was a PBA member from 1991-2001 and twice bowled in standard PBA Tour events. He rejoined when he turned 50 in October.

"I'm pretty surprised," Scarborough said. "I had the shot, I took my time and it worked out. To be honest, no, I wasn't nervous. I was pretending I was at home practicing, and I blocked out the crowd and focused on executing every shot."

Norm Duke had three consecutive 300s in a standard PBA Tour event in 1996, the PBA said Monday, but the performance didn't count as a 900 series because he ended one round with two perfect games and started the next round with the third.

Scarborough threw another strike to start his fourth game, but his streak ended at 37 when he left a split on his next shot. Three straight sub-200 games then knocked him out of the lead and into a tie for 12th place with 1,921 pins, 77 behind the leader, PBA Hall of Famer Mark Williams.