Rickie Fowler heaped praise on Marc Leishman after the Australian claimed a wire-to-wire victory at the BMW Championship on Sunday.
MORE: Leishman revels in wire to wire victory
Fowler turned in another great performance at Conway Farms Golf Club, but his second win of the season still eluded him as Leishman secured a five-stroke triumph.
The American had to settled for a share of second position at the third and penultimate FedEx Cup play-off event, and he gave Leishman – who rose to fourth in the rankings heading into the Tour Championship – rave reviews.
"Marc's a world class player now," Fowler said afterwards.
"He's got the power, he hits it plenty far. He made plenty of big putts today especially coming down the stretch, made some good swings. He's definitely not someone that you look past.
"I think maybe that's been the case in the past, but I know us as players, it's never really been that way."
Fowler finished tied for second at 18 under with Englishman Justin Rose following his final-round 67.
While Fowler was disappointed to come up short, and with his putting, he was generally pleased with his performance this week.
"It would have been nice not to have some three-putts. That was a bit of a downer. Outside of that I think we hit a lot of good putts, made some good putts," Fowler – sixth in the standings – said after his final round.
"I chipped a lot better this week than the last couple, the ones where I didn't finish in the Top-10.
"I feel like the rest of the game is right there. The short game is not there. It's a struggle sometimes to hang around the top. So, no, it's been a fun year. I'm looking forward to next week. I think it will all come together at the right time."