On Sunday, Marc Leishman touched off what he started earlier in the week at the BMW Championship. A final round of 67 was more than enough to deliver the biggest win of his underrated career. 

At 23 under, Leishman beat Justin Rose and Rickie Fowler by five strokes and cleared his other competitor, Jason Day, by seven. Unlike the Dell Technologies Championship a few weeks ago where Leishman shot a 40 coming home to lose to Justin Thomas, it never got all that uncomfortable on Sunday. 

Leishman went out in 33 and cruised home down the back nine in 34 and into the No. 4 slot in the FedEx Cup rankings going into the Tour Championship. He shot 62-64-68-67 over the four-day event.

"There was probably a few little scars from two weeks ago at the Dell," Leishman told Steve Sands of NBC. "I was really, really determined to not let that happen again and give myself a big enough buffer that I could get it done. Yeah, I got it done."

Leading the field in birdies on the week with 29 is helpful. Leishman's last four holes on Sunday were emblematic of his entire week. He birdied three of the four to leave no doubt in his third PGA Tour victory. 

The big Australian has always been a great ball-striker, and he was again this week as he finished No. 1 in the field in strokes gained tee to green. He also finished No. 4 in putting and once again proved the theory that the best putter of the best ball-strikers in a given week usually lifts the trophy.

Leishman is in some rare company going wire-to-wire at this event, too. He joined Day, Tiger Woods and others as the only winners to lead all four rounds of the tournament -- an even more impressive feat when you consider that 69 of the top 70 in the FedEx Cup standings were in attendance.

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Golf Channel

There could be an even bigger prize that awaits him next week, though. Leishman now trails only Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson and Thomas in FedEx Cup points and controls his own destiny at the Tour Championship. That means if he wins East Lake, he also takes home the $10 million prize. That's a nice little gift for a year's worth of work.

Either way, this will be a sweet one for Leishman to savor for another few days. He's certainly in the conversation for best players in the world who never get talked about, but a few more victories like this and that will change. He's clearly caught fire at the right time of the year, and with the Tour Championship next week and Presidents Cup following that, Leishman could own the very end of the 2016-17 PGA Tour season. At the very least, he'll always be able to point back to a magical week at Conway Farms in which he could not be touched by the best players on the planet. Grade: A+

Here are the rest of our grades for the BMW Championship. 

Rickie Fowler (T2): Fowler has been so close to winning about eight tournaments so far this year, and yet he has just one win on the season (the Honda Classic). It's not that Fowler has been playing poorly, he just can't seem to find a magical round when he needs it. 

He also keeps running into buzzsaws like he did this week with Leishman. Fowler actually didn't putt as well as he has for most of this season (outside the top 20 this week), but he should be encouraged by the way he hit it. He remains my pick for the Tour Championship and FedEx Cup next weekend. Also, the driver off the deck on No. 18 on Sunday was epic. Grade: A

Rory McIlroy (T58): His 2016-17 PGA Tour season came to an end this week after he shot 72-69-70-71 at Conway Farms and will miss the Tour Championship. He's the eighth of 10 defending champions to miss the Tour Championship the following season. 

It was a lost season by McIlroy's standards on the PGA Tour, although he'll have one chance before the end of the calendar year to get a win on the European Tour. 

Interestingly, McIlroy noted this week that he was compelled by exterior forces to play the FedEx Cup Playoffs at all after insinuating at the PGA Championship in August that he might not. That's not necessarily a huge surprise (the PGA Tour is a business after all), but it was telling for how much his injury has affected him this year.

"Some decisions aren't completely up to the individual," McIlroy told Golf Channel. "There was outside expectation from elsewhere. I played these events for two reasons: thinking that I still had a chance, but for trying to fulfill obligations elsewhere. So there was two parts of it."

Still, McIlroy wasn't discouraged by his winless campaign.

"It's my 10th year out here," he added. "I've been through the ups, I've been through the downs. I know it all sort of evens out in the end. I bounced back with a great year in '14 (after a poor 2013). I completely expect myself to play well next year.

"If I have a really good offseason and prepare and practice on the right things and come out mentally fresh and physically fresh, I feel like it'll be a really good year for me," he said. "That is sort of where my mind is at." Grade: C

Patrick Cantlay (T9): Cantlay made the Tour Championship after playing just 12 events this season, which is borderline unprecedented. He's somebody Jordan Spieth recently pegged as a future top-10 player, and he's been playing like it (when he's played) this season. 

His 67-65-70-70 showing at Conway Farms was as impressive as anyone considering what was at stake for him this week. He finished No. 29 in the FedEx Cup standings to make it to East Lake by two spots (after starting the week outside the top 40). Grade: A