trouble installing "sf" due to "gdal"

Facing similar problem I have followed the steps below:

1. On Terminal: gdalinfo --version to check which gdal version do you have. Mine was GDAL 2.2.0, released 2017/04/28 after brew update and brew upgrade
2. From here: https://github.com/r-spatial/sf, instructions for macOS, as I have already gdal installed, I have used only brew unlink gdal and then brew link --force gdal2
3. I reinstalled rgdal on R: install.packages("rgdal", repos = "http://cran.us.r-project.org", type = "source") and I have confirmed it was compiled with configure: GDAL: 2.2.0
4. Finally, install.packages("sf") and it required to be compiled: binary source needs_compilation sf 0.5-3 TRUE
5. Again, I have confirmed configure: GDAL: 2.2.0 and checking GDAL version >= 2.0.0... yes

After that, I have the new version installed: library(sf)Linking to GEOS 3.6.2, GDAL 2.2.0, proj.4 4.9.3

I hope it could be a solution for you too.

The sf github page has installation instructions that include some information about this issue. In addition to following the steps there to install gdal with brew, I also had to install proj separately:

https://github.com/r-spatial/sf

Actually one simple resolution is downloading sf file from CRAN, then manually install it.

I have the same problem and solved using this method.