HOLDEN – Anyone who has ever gone to play a round of golf and joined a group of strangers they had fun with, played well with, and inevitably returned another day to golf with, can relate to Bill, Don and Steve.

The three men from the Bangor area met on a course a few years back. Now they play together in tournaments, give each other advice on tough shots. Next fall, Bill and Don are going to hunt together for the first time So when the three friends met up at a tournament Sunday, they didn’t mind that the unfamiliar course they walked was tougher than most, that some of their shots were poor or that the rock rascals made things tough.

Rock what?

You see, Bill Taylor, Don Steves and Steve Jalbert are bow hunters. The tournaments they compete in are on 3-D archery courses. They merely bond, joke and shoot like golfers.

“I met Don on a course when he was climbing a tree to get his arrow,” Taylor dead-panned.

“That’s right. Don is just an acquaintance,” Steves fired back.

The threesome spent two hours Sunday trodding along the Penobscot Valley Archers Association’s newly formed 170-acre, 3-D course in the club’s first state tournament. But they could have been on the links – well, almost.

“This gives you your hunting legs,” Taylor said as he climbed down a rugged hill deep in the woods off Route 46.

As in golf, technique in archery – whether it’s with a high tech compound bow or an old-fashioned, Indian-style recurve bow – is critical. Concentration is also key. But it’s the gift for judging the distance to the target and planning the shot that makes the two sports so similar.

The PVAA’s 3-D course is the kind shooters love. They curse its difficult terrain and savor its surprises.

“I like this. It’s challenging,” Taylor said. “The rock rlike.”

Rock rascals are small, foam animal targets – and they’re only one difficult aspect of the course.

Put it this way, at the Stetson course Taylor and Jalbert visited Saturday, Taylor won the bow hunters release class with a 292 out of a possible score of 300, while Taylor grabbed second place with a 288. Considering shooters recieve 10, eight and five points for hitting one of three concentric circles on 30 targets, the shooters’ scores were first rate.

“Very rarely does anyone shoot a 300,” said Laurie Gifford who owned the Archery’s Edge in Holden three years ago and has been shooting for 23 years. “I have never seen anyone shoot a 300.”

But Sunday, Taylor shot a 268 to take third while Jalbert shot a 249. Steves scored a 260 shooting in the bow hunter open class, which shoots farther away from the targets.

After placing in all 12 tournaments he competed in last year, Steves said he has to work on his mental game.

“Sometimes I get disgusted,” said Steves, known as “Chuck-a-bow ” for having hurled the occassional unlucky arrow. “I get upset at the hunting bow. But the bow has nothing to do with it. It’s the hunter. Since I moved back to orange, I’m not as confident. It’s a mental thing.”

Then again, the PVAA course is a monster. Those life-size foam animals mocking Taylor, Jalbert and Steves may as well have been moving the way they were hidden in the woods at varying distances and inclines.

The fox at target No. 28 was good-sized for a fox, but he was perched up on a hill. The buck that came next was on the same level as the bow hunters, but he was facing toward them, making the target near his chest half the size.

When Steves jumped up in class, he paid a high price to do so – literally.

“I’ve put about $1,000 into all of this equipment,” Steves said. “When I moved back to the orange, I took a big dive for better equipment. Moving back with the big shooters, you need it.”

The three men all hunt – and say the fall sport that demands staying quiet and hidden is more difficult to master. But for the three bow hunters, archery tournaments are a test – and a relaxing way to spend an afternoon.

“I got into archery for hunting. I hunt deer, bear, moose,” Taylor said. “But I like the competition. I enjoy the tournaments for that.”

State Tournament Results

Penobscot Valley Archers Assocation AT HOLDEN

Future archers: Nolan Turner 187, cubs: Adam Libby 235, Kristen Libby 180, Randi Goldsmith 137, youth release: Don Parsons 254, Adam Webb 148, womens release: Jeanie Libby 227, Wanda Lewis 193, womens fingers: Micky Young 216, Kathy Ames 148, mens open: Norman Fuller 269, Dana Young 240, Ed Girsa 229, bow hunter release: Merton Bagley 276, Ernie Moulton 273, Bill Taylor 268, bow hunter open: John Libby 278, Mark O’Neil 277, Andy Upham 274, bow hunter fingers: Garry Smith 253, Darrell Carter 250, James Morrill 248, bare bow: Chris Bradley 221, traditional: Gordon Newel 106