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The Associated Press

CARY, N.C. (AP) -- While most people dread turning 50, Fulton Allem and Mark Wiebe hope it will be cause for celebration.

Mark Wiebe has spent time this year on the Nationwide Tour. (WireImage)

Allem and Wiebe have seen good and bad as PGA TOUR players. Both have tasted victory and both have struggled through the down times. Now they're both ready for their Champions Tour debut Friday at the $2 million SAS Championship at Prestonwood Country Club.

"It's exciting to be out here to see all these people who have been my heroes," said Allem, a three-time PGA Tour champion, including the NEC World Series of Golf in 1993. "If you told me 25 years ago that I'd look forward to turning 50, I'd have slapped you."

Wiebe, who has played on the Nationwide Tour and has two PGA Tour titles, thought he would have to play a Monday qualifier at Raleigh's TPC of Wakefield Plantation (where Wiebe has played in the Nationwide Tour's Rex Hospital Open).

But he received a sponsor's exemption and will begin play Friday in a group that includes Jeff Sluman, the former PGA Championship winner who tied for 15th in his Champions debut last week at the Greater Hickory Classic.

"It's pretty cool," said Wiebe, who has made five out of 11 cuts on the Nationwide Tour this year. "I feel like I'm playing decent right now and I want to play."

In the early 1990s, Allem, a native South African, played in the 1994 Presidents Cup for the International Team and shot a 62 in the final round to win the World Series of Golf, which gave him a 10-year exemption.

But problems with his wrist and back derailed his career. Now, he says, surgery to relieve nerve entrapment has allowed him to feel better than he has in the last six years.

Allem played in one PGA TOUR event this year, the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial in May, where he shot 7-over and missed the cut. Off the course, Allem has been recognized by golf fans as one of the panelists on The Golf Channel program "Fore Inventors Only," in which people come up with gadgets hoping to make a name for themselves.

Fulton Allem is a former Presidents Cup participant. (WireImage)

"I'm pain-free. Everything's good," Allem said. "It's been a little bit of a struggle but with the help of family and friends, I've made it here. It's been like life: up and down."

Wiebe is looking forward to playing with people his own age and is healthy after elbow surgery. He played well this year in Nationwide events in Rochester, N.Y. (1-under, tied for 15th) and Omaha (11-under, tied for 44th) this year but said he'll enjoy the atmosphere of the Champions Tour much more.

"To go from playing with 25 year olds on the Nationwide, 155 of them, to playing with 77 other guys who are not all young and have flat bellies and guys who are driving the par 4s," Wiebe said, "it's pretty neat. I have no expectations. I want to keep playing like I have been playing."

The tournament has one of the biggest purses of a non-major on the Champions Tour and boasts eight of the top 10 players including Jay Haas, who leads the Charles Schwab Cup with 2,405 points with four victories and 16 top 10s. He is 386 points ahead of Brad Bryant with four events left.