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Broncos rookie heads home to Wiggins for golf tradition

Posted at 9:16 PM, Jun 07, 2019
and last updated 2019-06-07 23:17:43-04

WIGGINS, Colo. -- A hometown hero in a small Colorado town is returning home as a Denver Broncos rookie for a weekend golf tradition.

Dalton Risner's dream just came true to play for the Denver Broncos.

His father says he's a Wiggins celebrity who loves giving back to his community.

"He's just a giving human being," Mitch Risner said. "When he would come back from summer camp at Kansas State and maybe have five days, he would spend two of them at the elementary school and high school going into classrooms."

Wiggins doesn't have a golf course and with just 887 residents, it's a far cry from the action at Broncos Stadium.

"It's a small town; hard work, farmers, ranchers, people commuting to Denver, we consider ourselves grinders out here," Mitch said.

For the past ten years, the Risner Golf Classic has brought hundreds of residents together for nine holes of golf on Mitch Risner's pasture. On Saturday, 76 local families, many of them father and son teams, will continue that tradition on the most unusual golf course.

"I even had to bring the cows in from pasture and put them up in the corral," Mitch said. "Get a couple golf clubs and your best friends and go out and hack away in the pasture."

Mitch says the tournament is about connecting with the community and spending time with close friends and family. Eventually, Risner would like to make the tournament a charity event. But this weekend it's turned into a celebration of Dalton's success.

"It's still surreal. I think it will be a little more real when he runs out of the tunnel and he's in full dress Bronco's uniform," Mitch said. "I'm sure some tears will be shed that day."