BUTLER TWP — Forgive Henry Austin if he's not a big fan of handicapped bowling scores.

Austin, 70, of Butler won the scratch division of the PA State USBC Seniors Tournament a couple of times before, only to be denied a berth in the national seniors tourney.

“You have to win the 6-game all-events, but only the handicapped division winner gets the state berth in the nationals,” Austin said.

When he competed in the 52nd annual PA State USBC seniors tourney last November in Williamsport, Austin won the scratch championship again.

This time, he won the handicap division as well and will be headed to his first USBC Senior Nationals bowling tournament at Western Lanes in Cincinnati, Ohio, the first week of August.

Austin, competing in the 65-69 age bracket last fall, tallied a 1,486 handicap score. His handicap was only 18 pins and he edged Robert Oliver of Canonsburg — who had a 24 handicap — by three pins. Every other bowler in the top 10 of the 65-69 handicap division had handicaps of more than 200.

“That really makes it tough,” Austin said. “You enter these tournaments with a high average, but that doesn't mean you're going to hit or exceed that during the tournament.

“The handicap score for a bowler is a given. It's always going to be there. If you're facing a handicap differential of 50 or more pins, that can be tough to overcome.”

Austin bowled a scratch 716 series in singles and 752 in doubles. He won the state's seniors scratch title by 41 pins over Clarence Lafferty of Fairview.

He will be up against numerous bowlers in his age division at nationals.

“The information I received about the tournament says there could be up to 400 bowlers there,” Austin said. “Two of my good friends in bowling — Mike Shehesky and Richard Bower — have bowled at nationals and I'm getting an idea of what to expect from them.”

Shehesky is a Zelienople resident while Bower lives in Ford City.

“I've bowled with them both quite a bit,” Austin said.

Austin's mother-in-law, Donna Jacques, bowled in the 75-plus women's division at the USBC Seniors Championship in 2014. She placed 16th out of 32 bowlers in her division.

Now 88, Jacques is still an active league bowler.

“I guess my main goal should be to finish higher than 16th,” Austin joked.

He certainly has the resume' to do well in any tournament. Austin has rolled 37 sanctioned 300-games and 14 sanctioned 800-series.

His highest series is 836, bowled in 2005 at Lee's Lanes in Vandegrift.

“What I'm proud of is that I've bowled those perfect games and 800's in plenty of different houses,” Austin said.

He bowls in four leagues during the season — Mondays at Belmont Lanes, Tuesdays at Sherwood Lanes, Thursdays at Deer Lakes and Fridays at Sims Lanes in Beaver Falls. His averages last year at those houses were 208, 213, 215 and 214, respectively.

His last perfect game was Jan. 20 of this year at Belmont Lanes. His last 800 was an 812 April 5 at Sims Lanes.

“The key to getting better at bowling is to bowl in a lot of different houses,” Austin said. “Shots are different, approaches are different, the general feel is different.

“Some approaches are sticky, some are slippery ... If you want to improve your game, you have to move around (to different bowling houses).”

Austin has bowled in the U.S. Open in Reno, Nev., and won the Pittsburgh city championship in 1999.

Now he's taking a shot at the USBC Senior Nationnals.

“I'm looking forward to it,” he said. “This will be a new experience for me and I always look forward to those.”