Back in 1983 when I was a 2nd year trainee golf professional I had my golf club construction theory exam. To this day I can still remember the standard lofts of golf clubs. I have created a table below showing the different lofts of the same clubs 31 years apart. It makes interested reading.

 

CLUB	1983	2014
1 iron	18 degrees	Hybrid
2 iron	20 degrees	Hybrid
3 iron	24 degrees	20 degrees
4 iron	28 degrees	23 degrees
5 iron	32 degrees	26 degrees
6 iron	36 degrees	29 degrees
7 iron	40 degrees	32 degrees
8 iron	44 degrees	36 degrees
9 iron	48 degrees	40 degrees
PW	52 degrees	45 degrees
SW	56 degrees	54 degrees

From the table above. A Ping G25 7 iron is the equivalent of a 5 iron from 1983. So if we allow a 10 m difference per club, we are looking at a modern 7 iron going some 20m difference in distance to that of one from 1983.

As you can see down the bottom of the table there is a 9 degree difference in loft between the present day PW and the SW. This gap is difficult to cover and requires a great deal of skill touch and feel.between these clubs. So the golf club manufacturers have created new clubs called things like a Gap wedge, U Wedge, A wedge etc to fit in between this gap.