I've just been (virtual) thumbing through the Taylowmade website and the vintage iron section.  Was amazed by this

The long irons in 1986 had these lofts 1 = 18 degreed, 2 = 21, 3= 24, 4 27

In 1995 a 3 iron was 22 degrees a 4 iron was 25, so we've already gained a club in distance.

 in 2000 we gained another degree so a 3 iron was now the equivalent of a 1986 2 iron at 21 degree's

 I then jumped back to today and found the lofts of the "super long" burners

3 iron = 18 deg, 4 iron = 21 deg, they are in effect strong by 2 clubs!!  So if you can hit a 3 iron today, welcome to the land of unstrikable!! 

I now mock those who buy new clubs and say they go 10 yards further, My reply will be yeah i've kept my old set and my five iron goes 10 yards longer than my 6 iron aswell!

This has opened up the market for hybrids (olde 5 woods) and gap wedges (olde pitching wedges or maybe 9 irons!!) marketing genius. I hope this hitting it high thing catches on then we'll all be back at proper lofts!

I have just added a ping 1 iron into the bag (don't know the exact loft).

Mainly use it when my driving is letting me down, but have hit it off the deck a few times when trying to punch the ball low - find it much much harder to hit off the deck than a 3-iron though.

Has the shaft lenghts changed thought ? If the 2i of old is still half an inch or more longer than todays 3i's then is still gonna be harder to play with regardless of loft.Although longer shafts are harder to play as are stronger lofts so they are just trying to tweak designs to meet the best compromise . there is a school of thought that the majority of irons in any given set should all be the same lenght and only the lofts should change for distance seperation.

The lofts these days are a lot stronger, and certainly wood shaft length has increased over the years, not sure about iron shaft length, anyone know?

It doesnt really matter too much that what used to be a 1 iron is now a 3 iron, and yester-years 8 iron is now a PW, the problem is the variation in manufacturers lofts within their own ranges of clubs, it makes it all quite confusing especially when one wants to change irons to a set that has differing lofts.

Length has changed too. Not as much in the irons. 1960's "standard" for a 5 iron was 37.5", nowadays it is 38". Drivers have gone from a "standard" of 43" to an average of 45.25". Obviously it varies from OEM to OEM, but you get the gist.

In the minds of the companies, distance sells.

 Yip the whole golf equipment industry needs a set of fixed standards , from shaft flex to loft , lie , length etc etc even down to balls , other sports have rigorous controls why has golf such a multitude of confusing choices.

"While the TM "Super Long" irons may be strong in loft they will no doubt be packed with all kinds of technological wizardry to make them easy to hit, promote a higher ball flight than the 18deg would dictate"

Lol, what technology?!  If you have moved from blade to cavity, made sure you have the right shafts in your clubs, and checked you ahve the correct grips, then you have already taken your share of improvements that technology can give you, the minor, if not very minor, increase in moving the cog farther back, or making the sole wider, or whatever else they claim, will have little or no effect on your game.

Loft has a massive effect on length and its a joke to try and sell a high handicapper an 18* 3 iron, the main reason is to simply sell the set, then make you fork out for another 2 if not 3 hybrids. The long irons then go in the garage.

As for the CEO from TM claiming that few players will notice any difference in the Burner at 46", yeah right, its because they are already using a 46"!  I bet a million quid Garcia won't have a 46" shaft on tour. 

Its all just marketing guff, longer shafts, stronger lofts and supposedly new wizardry with cog, and now gel filled cavities fro extra 'feel'.

Best thing I ever did was go back to my Hogans, have them fitted dynamically for lie, strengthen the lofts a tad, which gave my some offset, and start getting fit in the gym again. Oh and using a driver with less than 44" shaft. Oh and having the swingweights balanced. And practicing, and having some lessons. Little has changed over the last few years, the main distance gains on tour are from the balls, the hardness of the fairways, the fitness of the players and their dedication to custom fitting.

 hear hear , I work for a company that manufactures high end computer equipment ,software and services, "sun microsystems" , google it . and the level of technological advancement over the last 20 years in my industry is quite astounding . When i  here of the advances in golf club technology i just fall over laughing , it's a club ? a weight on the end of a stick composing of 3 components ! but what stops me laughing and makes me mad is the price they put on this technological advance, £500 for a product that would take £30 to manufacture , rip off , rip off , rant over

I've just noticed the Di7's come with a 43 deg pitching wedge and a 55 deg sand wedge, the honourable folks at Wilson couldn't be trying to manufacture a yardage gap so you have to buy two gap wedges could they?

Oh no, of course not! two gap wedges would be ridiculously over indulgent, what you need is a gap wedge and an approach wedge!!     

You heard it here first, the OEM's have dumper the 1 and 2 so you have to buy hybrids then shuffled the rest up into the space so you need 2 more wedges (that makes pitching, approach, Gap, Sand, Lob and if your a pelzaphile extra lob),  How long until they convince the USGA to allow 19 clubs in the bag? 20 if the 2 drivers thing catches on. Wait 21 with a new, somehow accepted, chipper!

Imagine the tour fairways after that, Steve:"It's 184.3 yards to the flag Tiger" Tiger:"Damn! right between clubs! If it was 184.2 I could have hit a 9 1/4 iron, and if it was 184.4 it would have been a perfect 9 3/8ths iron"  Steve: " We're really going to have to have a look at these yardage gaps in the short irons there causing havoc"

Instead of using 3 - 4 - 5 etc, would it avoid confusion if the irons were marked by degrees only i.e. 20 - 23 - 26.

Seems to work for hybrids and wedges, so fill the gap with irons marked in the same way.

Or would manufacturers prefer to sell "9 irons that go like an 8" to give the illusion that their new "technology packed" clubs go further than before.

I have previously commented on the huge gap in Di7 wedges, the matching gap wedge they sell is 49 deg.