(FORTUNE Magazine) – Not long ago the game of bocce brought to mind images of elderly men smoking Tuscano cigars. It was about as glamorous as, say, shuffleboard. Now a younger set of devotees swear that bocce (pronounced BOTCH-ee), a cross between billiards and lawn bowling, will surpass golf as an American sport of the 1990s. The U.S. Bocce Federation estimates that 100,000 Americans are doing it. Californians even play it on the beach. ''The beach!'' sniffs veteran Paul Montrone, CEO of Wheelabrator Technologies, a waste-to-energy company. ''I guess we'll have to be open-minded.'' Open-minded he is. For the first time, Montrone has invited a few friends of non-Italian extraction to play in this month's fourth annual Wolfeboro Invitational Bocce Tournament in New Hampshire. Among the newcomers: Sam Zell, chairman of Equity Financial & Management Co.; Ira Stepanian, chairman of First National Bank of Boston; and John Silber, president of Boston University. To get them in the mood, Montrone provided a complimentary copy of How to Be an Italian.J.L.